Debi Calhoun
JOUR 4250
Pornography in VOGUE November 2007
Chapter 12: Where Are the Clothes? The Pornographic Gaze in Mainstream American Fashion Advertising
Debra Merskin and Debi Calhoun
The portrayal of women in fashion advertising has itemized women into a vision or pornographic “eye-candy”. After reading Debra Merskin’s chapter in “Sex in Consumer Culture: The Erotic Content of Media and Marketing”, I studied the November 2007 issue of VOGUE magazine. I was shocked to find through content analyzing the various ways advertising has portrayed women pornographically. Merskin says, ““[i]n this chapter, I present an interdisciplinary analysis of pornographic themes in fashion advertising that draws upon film, communication, and fashion theories” (199). The pornographic themes expressed in many advertisements ranging from shoes, clothing, jewelry, hand bags, etc, have portrayed the ideal woman in a sexual and inviting way. “A feminist-centered approach is used to analyze visual components of several representative fashion ads including Marc Jacobs (shoes), Prada (jewelry), Gucci, and Versace (clothing)” (Merskin 200).
The images in fashion advertising in magazines, like VOGUE, have become so common and normal to readers. So common, the most pornographic and sexual advertisements are not seen to the normal viewer/reader as this. Merskin makes a good point when she says “…consider the consequences of the pornographication of mainstream
“Advertising constructs images of femininity and ideal female beauty and establishes definitions that employ particular codes that help viewers read and understand what being a woman means. This is accomplished in ways that make complete sense, that appear normal and natural. So called feminine qualities such as softness, beauty, perfection, health, and sexiness are tied to the consumption of products designed to achieve these same ends” (Merskin 204).
With advertisement focusing so much on woman and their beauty, it’s become hard to notice what is actually being advertised. VOGUE obviously focuses on fashion and many of the advertisements are for perfume, shoes, and clothes; however, many of these advertisements have nude women with inviting poses.
In the November 2007 issue of VOGUE fashion magazine, there were a total of eighteen advertisements I found that had a pornographic look to them. The very first page of VOGUE was a fold-out, much like that of a Playboy center-fold, with a women half-dressed, lips partially open, and hand placed on her thigh. The advertisement is for Calvin Klein perfume, Euphoria. However, the advertisement is three pages with this woman on it and only one small image of the perfume and word “Euphoria”. The second page of VOGUE is a Gap advertisement with Anne Hathaway completely nude with a shirt draped across her breast. The word “Gap” is nowhere to be seen until the following page where it reads “Can the shirt off your back change the world?” introducing a “2 weeks t-shirt” that when purchased, a contribution from the sale goes to the global funding for AIDS/HIV prevention. So, another advertisement with a nude woman, yet also an ad for global funding. I find this to be a bit degrading in many ways. Sexual images in an AIDS/HIV prevention advertisement; however, not shocking in today’s media. A couple more advertisement just a few pages into VOGUE, Louis Vuitton is advertising a purse. This ad wasn’t as pornographic as many are, but there is a woman lying on couch with her cleavage showing, lips partially open, and she is holding a Louis Vuitton purse. Three pages after this add, there is a Dolce & Gabbana add with, on one page, are two women slouched in dressing with their legs spread. On the other page, there is a woman with her legs spread even further directly centered to the viewer. I, not being a fashion expert, am not sure what this was actually advertising. On a different advertisement perspective a few pages further, the David Yurman ads have a woman in underwear and a tank-top laying on the ground with a necklace in her hands. Considering the ad is a two-page spread with the woman filling the two-pages, the jewelry is hardly being advertised. “By drawing upon established codes and categories that satisfy widely held beliefs of what is pornographic (both soft- and hard-core), it is clear that what is presented in fashion ads is pornographic” (Merskin 214). Although, this is only a few of the many advertisements with sexual and pornographic images, the entire magazine is full of these types of ads. Many readers, like me, wonder if the advertisement industry will take this a step further in the future and full nudity, like Playboy magazines, will become a common image seen in all magazines. Merskin answers this question in her opinion that “[t]he use of sexual imagery in advertising in general—and fashion advertising in particular—shows no signs of slowing because, if for no other reason, sex has become the commodity used by advertisers competing for consumers attention” (Merskin 214).
In retrospect of my studies, Debra Merskin and I have made very similar conclusions of how sexual and pornographic advertising has become. Sex only seems to be becoming more of the seller for companies and woman are continuing to portray themselves this way in all types of media.
