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American Apparel's Imagined Bodies
Submitted by Megan Eatman on Thu, 2011-01-27 13:47
Cropped version of American Apparel ad by Boris Lopez I hate to be talking about this, because I hate to be one of the many people giving American Apparel attention, but I can't help but find their recently released ads, which feature line drawings of nude, young-looking women, worthy of commentary. While American Apparel's ads usually contain some degree of nudity, their foray into line drawing rather than a particular photographic aesthetic seems to invoke, maybe too obviously, questions about the nature of pornography in a virtual world. More photos, which are not suitable for work, after the jump.  While the critiques of American Apparel's ads are numerous, I have always found their ads more over-the-top and obvious than offensive (their policies--like not selling some items over a size 6--are another story). AA forgoes subtext in favor of selling sex as obviously as it possibly can; the clothes themselves are barely featured, and and young women's bodies become the primary consumable. These line drawings clearly follow that pattern. While the slogan "You can feel how good it looks" may ostensibly refer to the woman who would purchase and wear cotton undergarments, the drawing's beckoning expression suggests that it is, in fact, the observer who can "feel" how good the underwear looks through his/her attraction to the model.  One of the most noticeable features of these ads is, of course, the models' apparent youth. AA has always pursued a youthful aesthetic, forbidding its female employees from having "unnatural" haircuts, performing any obvious eyebrow grooming, or wearing more than minimal makeup, so the use of youthful women is not out of the ordinary. What interested me about these ads is that they could have been photographs; there are certainly models who look extremely young but are of legal age, and AA has obtained models from a variety of sources to get an "amateur" look (although it is untrue that, as the company claims, all of their models are amateurs). The use of provocative, underage-appearing line drawings calls attention to the line between fantasy and reality without fully surpassing it. Interestingly, the slogan could be used in arguments for legislation (extant in, for example, Australia and Canada) that forbids images that portray child sexual abuse even if no actual children were involved. By suggesting that this image, which draws attention to its own un-reality, can still inspire sexual sensation, the slogan suggests that the way a viewer feels about a drawing of an underage girl and a picture of an underage girl might not be that different. Tags:
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I really appreciate your comments. I should clarify that my intention was not to condemn the images, but to discuss their construction as rhetorical texts. The understandably strong reactions that many viewers have make these particularly interesting to me; are those viewers outside of the intended audience for these texts, or is this a case of "all publicity is good publicity?" After a recent conversation with another scholar, I also came to wonder what marked these images as underage for me, since they do not appear that way to all viewers. If these women seem young, what does that say about popular constructions of youth?
Kiddy Porn sells???
I have always found American Apparel's attraction to soft-core porn photography courtesy of Terry Richardson to be rather laughable because of it's blatant "Look at us and how hard we're trying to be cool, even though we don't care" message. But this crosses the line to child porn. And THAT is not funny, cute, sexy, nor should it be used for advertising purposes. This smacks a whole lot of American Apparel's stock going down the tubes and strikes me as a desperate last-ditch attempt at staying afloat. Well, I for one hope they SINK!
I have to say that I find
I have to say that I find this really disturbing and disappointing. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.