Personally I find nothing wrong with these images, and in fact have seen a lot worse than that in Vogue and the other fashion mags. Primarily, though, my favorite photographers tend to be on the more extreme end of things anyway (Joel-Peter Witkin, Cindy Sherman, ManRay, WeeGee, Richard Kern, etc.). And a lot of my own work in college was very sexual and had a lot of nudity, as did a lot of my peers' work.
I agree. I saw a lot worse in film school, and the stuff coming out of the photography department was astonishing. One classmate made what looked like a soft core porn movie for his thesis film.
But when you clump it all together, like any issue of Vanity Fair that takes twenty minutes to get to the table of contents, it's just obnoxious. I breeze by it, grumbling, and maybe choke if 80's fashion is back. Maybe I'm no longer sensitive to it, maybe I don't care.
Some ads are wrong by my definition. Not obscene, but wrong. You get a bunch of early teen looking models doing raunchy ads, and I'll even cry foul. If you want to promote adult ideals in a pair of jeans, use adults. But the fact of the matter is that they're selling it to as many teen girls as they are women - a blanket target audience - and it's accepted now if the models look younger and younger.
Like everyone else said; sex sells. Simple as that. Why is does is partly because the more we're told we're not supposed to look, the more interest is created. And there's that good old fashion human nature.
I don't know if we're headed towards European attitudes, with television and print having looser standards, but we're definitely on the fence. Whether we ditch that puritanical attitude remains to be seen.
I am personally all for more nudity and more sexuality in the media (as long as they are of age < cough >tatu< / cough >.
EVERYBODY!
"All the things she said,
all the things she said.
All the things she said,
all the things she said.
This is not enough...."
Okay, enough of that.
I think America needs to get off this sex is taboo mindset and embrace it like other countries have. It will only do more good. Statistics show there are less sex crimes in the societies where sex is accepted more freely and there are no taboos placed on sex.
This can apply to a lot of other ideals we have. Drinking, eating, even drugs are treated with different attitudes in other countries, but we're the ones declaring war on them, clinging to desparate statistics. And we're failing miserably.
So how does it comes out? In part, the advertising we clamor for. Maxim magazine is more of a slick ad than a magazine. Glamour is the same. Sex sells, but we're also addicted to advertising.
Ten years ago, the average half hour sitcom had more content than today. Why? Less ads (Max Headroom was so right... sorry). We're an ad nation. The scene in "Minority Report" where the ads referred to Anderton by name was dead on - we
want the ads to talk to us and show us an alternate "ideal" life, or body, or mate. A talking Versace spread with two women on the bed would be the perfect cup of tea for some people.
We tolerate ads, unless we have to pay more than five bucks for it. Example; an average issue of Vogue has a ton of ads, but it's fine. Tear 'em out, pass them by, maybe even look at the. No problem. Second example; Movie theaters, where we say "how dare they run an AT&T ad before the movie!" Why? Because we can get that for free at home.
First we have to stop being ad addicts, and then loosen up. We'd suddenly have more time to do things... like live with a clearer mind.
Just my humble opinion.
And for the record, I don't own any porn and have never been in a strip club in my life, don't see the need for it.
For the record, fnordboy likes to call them "gentlemen's clubs" when he tips the bouncer.
Gary