September 03, 2004
Elle McPherson: porno chic
I saw this image in a copy of Vogue when flickering through it at the hairdressers this morning. Clearly there is a strong competition to establish bold and sexy brands in a marketplace crowded with beautiful bodies--most of them female. Hence the emergence of porno-chic in our increasingly frank sex culture.
Elle McPherson, Intimates
All those at the hairdressers agreed that the sexy image was porn, but no one was fazed by it; even though they acknowledged that the image degraded and humiliated women. Or even when they realised it was a tv commercial. It was a part of Paris fashion. Everyone was doing it.
Does this mean an acceptance of the ever-increasing mainstreaming of porn? Or that the definition of what is erotic vs. what is pornographic is now changing according to the tenor of the times and what is being created in popular culture?
It is clear that porno chic is now fashion cool; It is more than a fashion style. Its hip.
How about this suggestion. These images are not degrading to women. These are the images our culture has given us as women, and instead of rejecting them, women embrace them and play with them.’
Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at September 3, 2004 04:46 PM | TrackBack