I was reading the New York Times after a particularly long day and I encountered a Versace ad that I wanted to post — 2 vacant-eyed women, apparently starving. Lacking even the strength to hold their mouths closed.
Alas, the ad is not to be found online, and I’m afraid if I try to scan it it won’t show up well, as it is in black and white.
(October 10: found it!):
I did find myself on a trip through the strangely-thematic surreal. Let me share some of the landmarks along the way.
Firstly, we have women disguising the fact that they are naked by hiding behind their voluminous handbags:
I think her handbag may weigh more than she does; she also looks as if she may be inside the handbag; then again, I may be wrong.
There also seems to be a theme where we are apparently supposed to be noticing the woman’s shoe as she is stepping into her clothing. This photo spread kills the proverbial two birds, by having her hide one of her (naked) legs behind her purse while stepping into her dress with the other leg. And look! she’s managed to accomplish her task, and is now fully clothed in the picture on the right. Good for her.
Now I don’t know about how models do it, but I tend to put my shoes on last, and have not usually picked up my purse until after the belt is on. Maybe it’s just me.
Then we have the group shots.
I’m not even going to presume what the women on the left are doing, but the one in the middle looks like she’s trying to work in her workout during the shoot, (poor lunging form, btw), Stephanie has longer legs than I am tall, and Claudia really needs to pee. Maybe we could take 5?
Now how about the men.
My son plays a game with pictures of his band on facebook called “what is ____ looking at?” Maybe there’s a giant spider on the floor or something. But do any of us know any men who would do this willingly? I guess they’re pretty well paid, but does that make them “prostitutes”? I can’t really figure out what market Versace is trying to reach with this one, but I guess that’s their marketing department’s problem.
Nothing wrong with this one; at least not as far as I can tell, although I’m not sure what we’re supposed to make of the hands in underwear/handcuffs. Hmmm. . .
Quite fine.
So what are we supposed to make of this?
This just makes me want to cry.
Men get to be strong, muscular, virile; women are wisps, hiding behind our handbags, not allowed to go to the bathroom.
Sigh.
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