just a general observation-i can't tell you how many new young straight male photographers there are who are basically in it to shoot women as naked as they can, just for the power of it and in their minds, to hopefully date them.. that bothers me. i love nudity, but i didn't get into fashion to sleep with male models. i have watched too many people get this perverted gleam in their eye as i witness them shooting a girl willing to go topless for them….and their work sucks. my comment has nothing to do with terry richardson. i am talking about those who try to make their work artistic, but you can see from a mile away how much they got off getting a model to show skin for their shots. not all guys are like this of course. i just know better who i want to work with….

????????????????? iam swedish monkey

Quote:
“When a giant NYC billboard of a young women dressed only in tights, bent over, legs spread, gets spray-painted with the tag “Gee, I wonder why women get raped?” I’m going to call foul.”

This, to my mind, is completely ridiculous – to somehow try to absolve/lay the blame for a horrific crime at the foot of a photograph???? Oh yeah, those poor men, if only women didn't look sexy, they wouldn't have had to violate somebody – somebody else's fault, of course. Never their own. This is the kind of attitude that means rape has such low report/conviction rate – women fear they can't look how they want to, own their bodies & sexuality and be free with it, and in the end, the men can try to turn it around to make it look as if they were 'asking for it', us sluts.

As for AA – I am getting pretty tired of what seems to be turning into a witch hunt on Gawker and Jezebel. Every day it's getting bashed for something, often things that are pretty normal in fashion/retail. And now I see another article here. Yes the advertising is provocative and sexy, but to be honest, I barely notice it – all the articles on aforementioned sites are what draws my attention more.
I think it is very disrespectful to the women in the ads to assume exploitation – lots of women enjoy having provocative, sexy photos taken, as well as naked pictures, lots of women do this frequently with boyfriends and find it possibly as an erotic experience as their partner/the photographer.
To be considered 'attractive' or shapely enough to be a model for AA is obviously flattering for a lot of girls, and who is to say they do not find it as much of a turn on as Dov. You have to admit the girls in the ads look pretty confident in themselves.

I know lots of people do not agree with me, but one minute people are complaining about lack of diversity in the fashion world, models being too skinny, over-airbrushing, unrealistic body images etc, and you cannot say that these ads do not look more like everyday people. Make up your mind people!
A body is a body, an ass is just an ass, tits are just tits….buy a burqa if a body is so shameful.

Seriously? You'll claim Dov Charney and American Apparel have “gone to far,” but you won't call out Terry Richardson on being a perv and/or abusing his power as major photographer? I call foul on that.

There is a really big difference between wearing a sheer blouse and being forced/coerced into a position (physically and symbolically) that is degrading. Not to mention the fact that Dov Charney is guilty of actual sexual harassment, not just “edgy” advertising, which, as far as I know, Alexander Wang has not been accused of.

hmmm weird new pop up window didn't recognize my user name…Grammyweezy here darlings.

This a really well-written, passionate post. I just want to thank you for writing it.

Exactly I also agree this attitude of men being weak creatures who cannot control themselves and go rape women because they saw an image o the woman in question was flaunting herself is complete crap.
Points need to be given as they tend to be very inclusive and real in their ads but I do question some of the intentions behind them, these ads are objectifying women as a whole and whether the subject of the image in question enjoys it is besides the point.
There needs to be a balance we need to find as a society were woman are free to dress as skimpy as they want and men won’t consider it an invitation for unwanted attention but until that happens we can’t turn a blind eye to what some of this photographers are passing as edgy/creative/original and what have you.

i highly doubt that the author is excusing the idiots who think that if a woman poses in suggestive ads that she is asking for rape…..i get the impression that she is saying that the ads are so raunchy that you bring out the schmucks that will spray paint such an ignorant statement on a billboard….

agreed. there are many “fashion” photographers that forget that they have product to sell. i think that the masters of nudity in fashion photography are photographers such as inez and vinoohd and mario sorrenti and helmut newton… there may be full frontal nudity in their work but you absolutely get the sense of respect for the person. i love these mert and marcus images- (NSFW!!!) http://fashiongonerogue.com/love-3-body-conscie… particularl
i happen to really like terry richardson's cheeky shoots too. i have assisted on several of his shoots and it has always been a professional atmosphere. of course as a woman when i hear about models coming forward with horror stories it is disconcerting and i read them with an open mind. i can make up my own mind about what i think about it.

I live in Europe, in two different countries mainly – I have to say their ads don't really get any attention here. I never hear people talk about them, I only see the furore surrounding them on American sites. I have to say I am always fascinated at the contradictions in 'American culture' – I don't want to tar everyone with the same brush hence the inverted commas – I mean the puritanical, religious, right wingers alongside a massive porn industry in a country where you can find a strip club in a small town but it is illegal to go topless at a beach. The human body is so cloaked in shame for some people and so everything becomes pornographic. Anyway I have gone way off topic.

I often think women objectify themselves…and like it. Lots of women, usually younger, choose to dress 'slutty' for attention, because it makes them feel good, they are proud of their body etc….one could argue as to whether this is linked to self-esteem levels. But again, a blanket statement that all women who dress provocatively have low self-esteem is hugely insulting.
Heterosexual men are always going to pay attention to a girl with less clothes on…but they are not listening to what she says. I think most girls realise this eventually and if they continue to 'get their tits out' then perhaps they just like how it looks, are proud of their body and love to turn heads? More power to them.

I have to say overall I don't feel anything negative toward AA ads – full disclosure I also like Terry Richardson's photography, blog outcast that I am ;)
I take from the ads overtly sexual women, looking confident and in control, without men, and of varying body shapes/ethnicites and although i love conventional high fashion photography, that is a LOT more than you would ever see on the pages of Vogue or a luxury ad.

I should add, that if I had young children viewing these ads in a public urban setting, I might feel differently. I wouldn't mind future children on a topless beach or at a stretch a nudist beach, but I am not so sure about impressionable minds and the more graphic images. How to explain! 'I love your daddy, she reeeallly loves her socks…'

I think all three are sleazoids and should add gold chains with medallions, long sideburns (whoops – Dov already has those) and a hypertan to mark them all as escaped extras from a Boogie Nights reunion. Their job is to help sell clothes, not exploit young women and girls with their misogynistic photo fantasies.

” and being forced/coerced into a position (physically and symbolically) that is degrading.”

Why is it that women are always being FORCED into these positions? Maybe we should take the time to ask the girls in these photos (who are probably a lot older than they look) if they feel degraded. Then maybe we can judge the people taking these photos and the companies using them.

I find an underaged girl in a sheer blouse EXTREMELY inappropriate. I am a model and have been shot by terry and I have not one HORROR story. But showing an underaged girl's breasts in any way is and should be illegal. But if a girl is in a suggestive photoshoot with a suggestive photographer, who is to say that she wasn't happy to be there and pleased with the photos she's taken?

He's been accused of sexual harassment and many former employees have filed lawsuits against him.

they could also be scared, bored, ugly or ignorant.

I was actually thinking the same thing about your post (amongst other things, what is a “hora”?)…and your lack of familiarity with the inversion used here by Daria only supports my assumption.

I also want to point out that there is, of course, nothing wrong with not being a native English-speaker, and I applaud any attempts to branch out into other languages. I just thought it was hilarious for lazy queen to (wrongly) think this person used incorrect English when her own thoughts were so imperfectly conveyed.

From what I could gather from them, though, they are also ridiculous. The “real new yorker” thing is just precious.

Okay, so you're saying we should ask the model/employee to determine whether the action of the photographer/employer is wrong. The problem with this is that there are a lot of psychological implications that come along with being an exploited person/victim in a situation like this. Take for example, being a victim of domestic abuse. Many, many victims of domestic abuse cannot or will not speak up for themselves. This does not in any way excuse the behavior of the abuser, does it? Just because the model/employee cannot or will not speak up, does not make exploitative/abusive behavior okay.
For the record, I am not a puritan; as Rachel points out below in response to Rashy's comment, nudity can be done tastefully, beautifully and insightfully. I'm just not down with misogyny, ever.

Well, I did sell shoes at one point in my life…

http://www.stanford.edu/~rag/cse/bundy1.jpg

yea, i've seen most episodes.

there shouldn't be any commenting issues with posterous.

(This is actually a response to the comment below…)

Your experience with Terry does not determine every other model's experience with him. Just because you were not intimidated into doing something that you were not comfortable with does not mean that another person wasn't. Furthermore, I am not assigning feelings to these models in order to “help my argument”; there are models/employees of both Dov and Terry who have come forward and said that they felt coerced into doing things that they were not comfortable with. I didn't make that up. I am merely trying to defend a woman's right to speak up for herself, because any woman who does is undoubtedly met with a barrage of ignorant people suggesting that she likes being treated like shit. I'm done talking about this now.

(This is actually a response to the comment below…)

Your experience with Terry does not determine every other model's experience with him. Just because you were not intimidated into doing something that you were not comfortable with does not mean that another person wasn't. Furthermore, I am not assigning feelings to these models in order to “help my argument”; there are models/employees of both Dov and Terry who have come forward and said that they felt coerced into doing things that they were not comfortable with. I didn't make that up. I am merely trying to defend a woman's right to speak up for herself, because any woman who does is undoubtedly met with a barrage of ignorant people suggesting that she likes being treated like shit. I'm done talking about this now.

I always thought that the guy who spray-painted that – I feel like it was a guy, no idea why – was implying that using women's sexuality to sell things (using a mostly nude woman to sell clothing, for example) was part and parcel of the whole culture that causes some men to treat women as disposable, purely sexual objects. But that's just me.

hello, Has Dov Charney Gone Too Far This Time? Our Writer Thinks So … world—he's not going anywhere—and Zahm has never professed