Slog
News & ArtsMonday, December 19, 2011
Hetero Alive or Dead
Posted by Charles Mudede on Mon, Dec 19, 2011 at 7:51 AM
This image was fabricated by a Parisian ad agency, Fred & Farid, for the purpose of marketing Wrangler jeans.
My thoughts upon seeing it: Mud is erotic; dust is not. With mud, something can happen; with dust, nothing can happen. However, Lisa Wade, a culture critic at Socialogical Image, saw the image as promoting violence against women in two ways: one, by associating women with wild animals that need to be tamed, and two, by eroticizing the corpse of a woman who has been murdered and dumped in a lake.
Here is the video for the ad campaign...
The fetishization of violence against women? I will not dispute that. But allow me to add that there's also the fetishization of the savage, the human in a state of nature. Indeed, the video instantly brought to my mind a passage near the end of Darwin's magnificent The Voyage of the Beagle:
Of individual objects, perhaps nothing is more certain to create astonishment than the first sight in his native haunt of a barbarian — of man in his lowest and most savage state. One's mind hurries back over past centuries, and then asks, could our progenitors have been men like these? — men, whose very signs and expressions are less intelligible to us than those of the domesticated animals; men, who do not possess the instinct of those animals, nor yet appear to boast of human reason, or at least of arts consequent on that reason. I do not believe it is possible to describe or paint the difference between savage and civilized man. It is the difference between a wild and tame animal: and part of the interest in beholding a savage, is the same which would lead every one to desire to see the lion in his desert, the tiger tearing his prey in the jungle, or the rhinoceros wandering over the wild plains of Africa.Indeed, behold the savage.
2
In addition to possessing the degree of racism that was common for his time, Darwin apparently was not perceptive enough to identify the various levels of artistry and reasoning that his "savages" engaged in.
3
I'm not so sure about the animal reference having to so with violence against women.
But the fact that this model looks like a corpse floating in a river is somewhat more concerning WRT violence against women.
But the fact that this model looks like a corpse floating in a river is somewhat more concerning WRT violence against women.
5
So, showing a male body like this is OK?
Also, I'm sure some feminists would see the idea of women as wild animals as being quite empowering. I thought women WANTED men to abandon the "sugar and spice and everything nice" way of thinking.
Also, I'm sure some feminists would see the idea of women as wild animals as being quite empowering. I thought women WANTED men to abandon the "sugar and spice and everything nice" way of thinking.
7
Good Morning Charles,
I wouldn't make too much out of a provocative ad. At the end of the day, the company, Wrangler wants to sell blue jeans. The use of a young beautiful female model in a steamy "savage" pose is hardly necessary to analyze. Needless to say, that kind of advertizing works.
I believe two far better examples of abject savagery are the dictatorship of the N. Korean leader Kim Jong-Il who died yesterday and this:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/na…
Jerome Isaac was caught on surveillance camera setting a woman ablaze in a NYC elevator. These two stories are example of savages. For me, I simply can't understand such horrific human cruelty especially the latter story. Now, that requires some analysis.
I wouldn't make too much out of a provocative ad. At the end of the day, the company, Wrangler wants to sell blue jeans. The use of a young beautiful female model in a steamy "savage" pose is hardly necessary to analyze. Needless to say, that kind of advertizing works.
I believe two far better examples of abject savagery are the dictatorship of the N. Korean leader Kim Jong-Il who died yesterday and this:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/na…
Jerome Isaac was caught on surveillance camera setting a woman ablaze in a NYC elevator. These two stories are example of savages. For me, I simply can't understand such horrific human cruelty especially the latter story. Now, that requires some analysis.
8
This is primitivist. Primitivism is disgusting. In this case it's just sexist. But it could be worse, it could also be racist and/or imperialist.
9
When I hear that sort of literalist interpretation of an image, I can't help but think that the feminists got all of their hermeneutics out of the fundamentalist Christian toolbox.
10
It's a good thing there's cultural critics to defend the image of women while social services for contraception and women's health are being drawn back, across the board, considerably.
These fucking morons have too much fucking free time.
These fucking morons have too much fucking free time.
11
@10, Because people can't do two things at once, like criticize primitivist depictions of women that perpetuate sexist norms AND work to defend social and medical services for women. Right. The people at Sociological Images are sociologists, looking at images such as these and analyzing them is part of their job.
12
FYI, I don't agree with Wade's interpretation of these images (I often think the analysis posted on Soc Images is lacking). I do however think these images fall in line with the long tradition of depicting and seeing women as wild, lascivious animals (which quite frequently has been used an excuse to control women). Ultimately these images, I think, offer the female form as an object of the male gaze, as an object of male consumption. This, in tandem with such images prevalence in our culture makes it sexist.
13
Charles: this video of a woman being stripped and stomped on by the Egyptian military is the corollary:
http://www.juancole.com/2011/12/egyptian… And yes, I know, she's wearing jeans...
http://www.juancole.com/2011/12/egyptian… And yes, I know, she's wearing jeans...
14
Oh horseapples. The woman in that image is not dead. She's swimming. You can see the ripples around her, for Pete's sake.
I don't see any women being violent to each other, or having violence done to them, in the video either.
Jesus Christ, get some perspective.
I don't see any women being violent to each other, or having violence done to them, in the video either.
Jesus Christ, get some perspective.
15
The "savage man" is a Hobbesian myth propagated by smug white men who believed that they were the pinnacle of creation
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