Oct
4
Dolce & Gabbana Misses the Point: Subjugation is Not Sexy
Filed Under Uncategorized | By Morgan J Curtis | Leave a Comment
Earlier this year, fashion designers Dolce & Gabanna bowed to public outrage and pulled an ad that many people saw as depicting a gang rape in progress. 
Naturally, the Italian fashion designers claimed that they meant no harm with their ad and had no idea that it would be seen as glorifying a sexually violent act. When Spain called for a ban on the ad, the designers claimed that Spain’s “climate of censure, shows that it wants to read negative messages even where they don’t exist”. I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to read a negative message into a scene that depicts a man holding a woman down on the ground with her dress pulled up to her waist.
Apparently we are supposed to ignore the fact that Dolce & Gabbana have a history of using such disturbing images in their ad campaigns. So, here we are a few months later and their newest advertisement spread features groups of mostly clothed women with a naked man in various submissive poses. At the time of this writing, some of the ads can be seen on their website homepage, advertising page, and desktop images page (scroll through the different options to see some of these ads). They can also be seen in fashion magazines such as W, but I don’t recommend supporting the ads by purchasing the magazine.
One of the photos depicts two men on their knees taking off their shirts, their faces can’t be seen, and the only other clothing item they are wearing is underwear. The women are standing over them menacingly; one of them is even brandishing a whip, about to strike at one of the men.
Once upon a time, it was difficult to find media images that objectified men in the same ways women were often objectified – represented with mostly body parts, partially or totally naked, in submissive poses, etc. Unfortunately, we are seeing objectification of men much more frequently now – that is one of the few areas in which we seem to be quickly nearing equality. This is a very clear sign that companies have missed our point all these years. Perhaps we need to spell it out more clearly.
When we said we wanted equality and that it was frustrating and harmful to see women objectified and sexualized in the media, this was not the response we wanted. We did not mean that we wanted men to be objectified, too. We know where that leads. We understand the problems inherent in dehumanizing people. We know that objectification facilitates violence. Mutual objectification and subjugation is not the answer, and we need to make sure advertisers know that.
