LET’S TALK ABOUT PORN

No, not THAT kind of porn. Get your mind out of the gutter! I am talking about everyday pornography- the stuff that our kids see every. single. day. And you unfortunately have no control over this. No amount of cell phone or tv or internet regulating is going to stop this, people. It is the advertisements we see every. single. day. So get used to it.

You may be thinking, “wait, last time I checked I was not looking at naked people having orgies or people with weird fetishes expressing that in Madison Square Garden”. This may be true, but I will tell you, that despite your efforts to acknowledge the very obvious aspects of porn, you have been ignoring the subtle ones. 

Take this Gucci advertisement: a very high-end brand, known for artistic geniuses who create over-priced bags and sell them to a very small population, and somehow they end up rich and famous and have their logo spewed all over bags, hats, belts, and lord knows, maybe even your dog’s sweater. However, what may look like a simple ad that targets both the male and female population (they are showing both male and female models with Gucci paraphernalia), take an even CLOSER look at this ad:

• This overly-slicked up male model (perhaps referring to a pedophile?) is sitting on a bench with his female friend laying over his crotch, with her ass in the air. Do I dare ask you to keep looking where his hand is?
• The female model is face-down, looking away from her male counterpart, and is seductively awaiting her spanking once the cameras are put away. Do you want me to go into explicit detail about what her shiny legs are supposed to represent? Yeah, I thought I would let you go with that sexual innuendo on your own.

So what does this mean? He is sitting there with his legs open, and hers closed (a social norm we have been taught!), and Gucci will make hundreds of thousands of dollars just because this ad was plastered in a fashion or women’s magazine. For all I know, it could be in Men’s Health, but all of you will have to confirm that for me, given I am not an avid reader of that particular fine piece of literature. This type of ad is categorized under the “rape” category of pornography. Are you still struggling to see how this glamorizes this violent act towards women?

I’ll let you think about this one, based on your own knowledge of what rape entails and  how some of those characteristics have made their way into our children’s daily lives in magazines, on billboards, and get this one: by being influenced to have “the best of the best”, categorized by their friends. So, while your 9-year old may not know what sex is, let alone rape, just be reassured that they have been exposed to this pornographic image and you do not have the address either matter for them, because Gucci has already done that for them. Oh, and the brand has been sure to make these things look socially acceptable to little Johnny and Suzy, too.

Now, I actually have to give credit to my mother for this post. She is the one that so graciously handed down to me her navy blue folding pocketbook from Coach from the 70s. It seriously is the one and only real vintage piece that I use and adore. 

So it looks like Coach is re-introducing its original styles (and thank GOD because I cannot take anymore of the ugly Poppy stuff they have put out there), and once again, I have beat InStyle (the fashion bible) once again to determine fashionable accessories. I actually should just work for them. They NEED me and my ability to find trends before they start. But maybe, one day, my time will come. 

I really love when this type of thing happens. This is a Zappos ad with no name-dropping, but they use shoes that I, of course, am able to identify. On the left is a Steve Madden bow-tied stappy flip flop thing (hey- I didn’t say I could identify the STYLE name, too…), in the middle, Nine West, and on the right, Same Edelman. Reason for my knowledge of these? I was either a) going to buy them b) they were at a price that my small budget could not afford at the time or c) did not know what color to buy. Or just all of the above.

I still am so sad I cannot get all three of these shoes as I feel that they each would contribute so nicely to both my clothing and shoe wardrobes. However, as said before, I am too poor right now to do so.