Accessorizing women

Via Sociologal Images:


This image from a slide show seemed like a good place to start this project. According to the introduction, this series of photographs is advertising "just a few of the accessories you'll want to own this spring." I'll comment on this in a second.

For now, I want to focus on the model herself. Why, exactly, is she nude? Were the creators afraid that we'd assume the clothes she she wore were accessories we should own? Probably not. There are a number of clothes that she could be wearing that, instead, are on her.

This is an example of what is probably going to be a major theme in this project. Nudity for the sake of it. Not that this is necessarily bad. However, the category will be useful for teasing out who is considered acceptably nude.

The photographers could probably have used any sort of model, but they chose this one (which looks a lot like every other model you see). Of course, since they're essentially using this model as shelving, it probably would have been more efficient to use a larger model. More stuff in less photos. Or, since they're male accessories, they could have used a male model. You know, modeling them.

As the above quote implies, this woman is also an accessory. But large women and men aren't accessories, like this woman is. Accessories in these ads are sunglasses and briefcases and thin, large breasted, photoshopped women.

I suppose I should give them some credit. The site IS the online home of GQ.