No One Should Suffer For Fashion?

I am happy to report that you all must love the advice I give to you because my blog now has over 8,000 views. But I am not here to talk about myself, as interesting a topic as I am. Tonight is more serious. The Fine Print is discussing a very serious and relevant topic: domestic violence. And tonight I want to talk to you about the fashion industry’s role in desensitizing us against this violence.

Recently, a Bulgarian fashion magazine called 12 published an editorial containing nothing but portraits of models with horrific injuries. There are models in this beauty spread with Black Dahlia-style Glasgow Smiles, models who've been strangled, models who've had their earrings and facial piercings ripped out, and models who've been mutilated with acid. It's all special-effects makeup, but it's still been considered sickening by the public. And it's hardly the first of its kind.

Fashion is about shock. Shock makes beauty, shock makes art, and shock makes dollars. But is this the right way to do it? Violence for profit?  The history of fashion is rife with depictions of violence against women. Photographers in the industry have a particular fascination with bloodied, bruised, or dead models, whom they often depict in sexualized positions. Even the great Halston, whose clothes I adore, was guilty of portraying violence against women in his store windows. Striking examples of the depiction of women as sex objects who deserve to be battered are often found in advertising. In the late 1980s, for instance, many fashion ads featured women who were abused, bound and gagged, or in body bags. Mainstream magazine fashion layouts featured women pulled along by corset ties, their necks in choke collars; trussed and restrained in straitjackets and straps; blindfolded; and sometimes stuffed in garbage bags. A recent Glee star has done a photo shoot where she has a black eye, and appears to be in the process of being abused with an iron. The photographer, Tyler Shields, states on his blog where he’s hawking 100 limited edition photos of the shoot, "Even Barbie gets bruises." Can you imagine?

These kinds of images are nothing new. Seeing women shown as the victims of implied male violence — or victims of any violence, frankly — in what is an overwhelmingly female industry, in magazines that are overwhelmingly run, written, and edited by women, should be troubling to us all. Why does fashion still think it's "edgy" to portray women as objects to be beaten and killed?

Fashion has an enduring fascination with depictions of women as the victims of violence in part because we live in a culture where roughly one-quarter of all women experience violence at the hands of an intimate partner during their lifetimes. Fashion reflects the culture at large, and ours has a lot of work to do. Thank you Jenna Sauers for your efforts to bring this to life.

So tonight, my best style tips is to salvage your beautiful faces and bodies ladies, AND gentlemen. Abuse is not glamorous, not a time to sell makeup, and certainly not something to be celebrated sexually in editorial ads. There is nothing classier than walking away from someone who doesn’t value your beauty enough to ensure that you come to no harm by their hands. Get out, move on, and look head to toe beautiful when you do it.

And there you have it. For more style tips follow me on Twitter @OliverBStyles, and read my blog at oliverbstyles.blogspot.com. Don't forget to take a look at the archives of The Fine Print, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thefineprint. Take care of yourself people and thank you for enjoying my work as much as you have.

Here’s to feeling safe in your couture. Cheers!