Seeing Is Believing

Sociological Images, the queens of criticising ‘women’s objectification’ in the media, have surpassed themselves this time. In a piece about ‘subliminal’ sexual messages in advertising they paint a picture of a world in which women are only ever presented as the recipients of men’s penetration and penetrative gaze. In the above image they describe how [...]

Andrej Pejic And The Gender Revolution

I have made my debut at the wonderful website Science Of The Time, where I have written about Andre Pejic and a campaign advertising women’s lingerie: What it is: Andrej Pejic, if not quite yet a household name, is definitely well known as a beautiful androgynous model, and for modelling both men’s and women’s clothes. But [...]

Pansy Violet: Manly Paint Colours and the Fag Within

Sociological Images have found a marketing campaign by a household decorating company, which aims to attract men to more ‘girly’ colours, by giving them ‘manly’ names. So this ‘plum escape’ becomes ‘sucker punch’ and ‘bone white’ becomes ‘beer foam’. The saleswoman in the video shows men and women the same colours but with the contrasting ‘masculine’ [...]

Benetton’s Metrosmoochers

ttp://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/11/16/benetton-unhate-campaign-_n_1097329.html?ref=uk#liveblog Benetton, known for their ‘risque’ adverts, have taken the Metrosexual Bull by its horns with their latest social justice campaign. These posters of world leaders kissing  are quite striking. Maybe not for the homoerotics so much as the shock of seeing people often at war, in such intimate poses. And indeed, the message of [...]

What About The Wimmin (Beer Drinkers)?

Over at fag up! HQ, Mark Simpson and others have been discussing how Beer Went Queer… http://www.marksimpson.com/blog/2011/03/15/how-beer-went-queer/#comments Our discussion focussed on beer advertising and how it is presented as a ‘manly’ beverage, even though, as the ads can’t help but refer to, we all know it is what men drink when they want ‘a break [...]

Not Waving But Drowning

Rafael Nadal has got into some shallow water over at Armani. I think he has been kidnapped by the Italian fashion house and is being slowly, sensually tortured for our viewing pleasure. First there was the poster campaign: http://www.marksimpson.com/blog/2011/03/06/tarty-armanis-latest-sporno-spunk/ and now a video advertisement that leaves the Spanish tennis ace swallowing fluid and spluttering for [...]

Why Can’t A Woman Be More Like A Man?

We all know Sporno is more interesting and seductive than regular porno right? Well the leaders of the rat pack at the moment in the genre seem to be those Italian Stallions, Armani. And who better to be the face and body of the brand but that wonderfully bronzed and buff tennis player, Rafael Nadal? [...]

Fagifesto

http://us.dockers.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=11173216 This is the faggiest thing I have seen in a long while, and believe me I have been looking at some VERY faggy things lately- in particular as part of Mark Simpson’s current ingenius project, ‘Fag Up!’* ‘But today, there are questions our genderless society has no answers for’… if only we were living [...]

Fag Up! Mark Simpson Outs America’s Inner Fag

Our favourite Renaissance Fag has come up with a brand new project: to out America’s inner fag.  Mr Simpson has captured my anti-macho fag imagination once more with this delightfully faggy idea: ‘Fear of The Fag Within still dominates most American media discourse about masculinity.  It’s what prompted the backlash against metrosexuality in the mid-Noughties, [...]

Dead Men Don’t Answer Back

http://toomuchtosayformyself.com/2011/01/31/advertising-misogyny/ I have been involved in a discussion about objectification, with feminists at the blog cited above. The feminist blogger has presented the subject as being about objectification of women, particularly in advertising. I have tried to open up the debate to consider the objectification of men in visual culture, as well.  Some of the [...]