Feminist Fashion #3 NWS

Previous posts: 1, 2
February’s Vogue Paris has an editorial featuring models Lara Stone and Travis, photographed by Steven Klein and entitled “Lara Fiction Noire.”
The one clever thing is that there are no guns anywhere in the editorial, this attempt at noir fiction:
In this sub-genre, the protagonist is usually not a detective, but instead either a [...]

substitutions aren’t necessarily a good thing.

I was reading old blog posts from Greg Mankiw when I stumbled on this one:
Todd D. Kendall, an economist at Clemson University, reports that more pornography leads to less rape:
The arrival of the internet caused a large decline in both the pecuniary and non-pecuniary costs of accessing pornography. Using state-level panel data from 1998-2003, I [...]

I just made up a simple rule-of-thumb.

It addresses the truth that women’s bodies are held to be within the public domain: Guys, if what you do to a female would be construed as “gay” if done to a male, it’s not appropriate. And the same holds true for gals going through the same motions.
Note: I am not endorsing homophobia in any [...]

why I like the label “feminist.”

As I’ve been reading feminist discourse and feminist blogs, I’ve stumbled on a large number of women and men and people who have chosen to reject the label of “feminist” and distance themselves from the “feminism” movement.
But while the different brands differ radically and I certainly don’t like the tactics of certain groups, nor agree [...]

child pornography and pedophilia.

A recent Supreme Court ruling has (again) declared representations of child pornography (drawn, digitally drawn etc) to also constitute child pornography.
Jill from Feministe has a nice post analyzing the intentions behind the ruling.
Whether that’s “really” child porn isn’t a closed subject, I don’t think. No, it’s not using actually children, but it is digitally altering [...]

not a good way to pick up girls.

Katherine Zoepf has been doing a NYTimes blog series on dating in Saudi Arabia. Her latest entry is about numbering – when Saudi boys drive in cars alongside the cars of Saudi girls and wave their phone numbers on cardboard and send Bluetooth messages, hoping to get some reply.
But I want to draw attention to [...]

good for Vogue (maybe).

So it’s official. Vogue Italia is having an all-black issue.
Let’s hope they get it right, and not wrong.
I find it interesting that the Vogue UK blurb first calls it an issue that will “feature only non-white models” and then says the issue will be “featuring black models.” Non-white = black?

well, I think men’s bodies are most flattering with no clothes on, so they shouldn’t wear anything on the streets.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/fashion/24DRESSES.html
The problem with the main argument in that NYTimes article, that men like to look at women in dresses and thus women should wear dresses (oh no! the pant! how horrible! it helps women cross their legs – but where are the ultra-feminine dresses of the pre-second-wave-feminism era?!), is that then women should be making [...]

Feminist Fashion #2

Do you guys consider this ad offensive?

I don’t, and I think this is a good example of a subversive (sexual orientation) ad that does not inherently harm women.

Feminist Fashion #1 NWS

NWS = not work safe [read, not work safe. in this case, it's sexuality]
I am going to attempt something perhaps paradoxical. It’s called feminist fashion. Jezebel markets itself as a pop culture, fashion savvy, pro-sex feminist blog, but they sometimes miss the big picture, in my opinion. (I do love Jezebel, though.)
At any rate, I [...]