The fashion industry has always been, in part, about selling expensive shit to women in the form of female submission (corsets, stiletto heels, etc.). But there seem to be more submissives than normal in the ads of the major American fashion magazines this month, specifically, models and actresses in the sort of awkward, recumbent poses defined by academics as "arrogant, slightly insolent" expressions meant to induce status anxiety in consumers. We asked Mark Duffy, the dude behind the blog Copyranter for his opinion, and he gave a somewhat different take. "The advertisers want the ads to look inviting, so the models are put in subservient positions, so as not to intimidate readers," he told us. "Also, such positions also serve as a 'pointer' (arrow) to the products." So which is it? Are such ads inviting or intimidating? Take a look at the offending ads after the jump and weigh in.

(Click on any image to enlarge)

Miu Miu

Louis Vuitton

Valentino

Reem Acra

Furla

Marc Jacobs

Prada

Visual Persuasion: The Role Of Images In Advertising [Google Books]
Related: a href="http://copyranter.blogspot.com/">The Copyranter
Paul Messaris [University of Pennsylvania]

Send an email to Anna Holmes, the author of this post, at anna@jezebel.com.