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Supermodels Tortured For "Prestigious" Nude Calendar
New York, 6:10 AM
Thu Nov 12
67 posts in the last 24 hours
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Supermodels Tortured For "Prestigious" Nude Calendar |
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11/26/08
And "considered prestigious"? Respect, people! This is the Gawker Media Empire. Every day you rip apart the "prestigious" New York Times, the "prestigious" Vogue, the "prestigious" "President" of the "United States", but post some wacky travel snaps and you're all "Well, it's art"? That doesn't make it not-crap.
Here's my time-tested recipe for bad, expensive art:
1. Find an artist whose best work is in his past. The past-er the better.
2. Pay him a pile of money to do whatever he wants, ideally in a remote location, far from anyone with taste, or even common sense. (Where's Martin Sheen when you need him?)
3. Publish it with no editorial oversight whatsoever. Hey, it's only your corporate image at stake!
11/26/08
Really! Go look. Model skin tone, choice of lighting, weird body paint combine to give the exact look of bad photoshop fakes. All of these photos would be better without models.
Without human models, anyways.
11/25/08
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11/25/08
Hopefully, they won't be asking for a bailout next.
11/25/08
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11/25/08
As to the models, they made choices, though it could be argued that it's not always easy to get up and leave a situation that you've agreed to when it becomes disturbing, especially when you're surrounded by people upon whose opinions your career depends, especially when it's all on film. But yes, they made choices.
What disturbs me is that we're still in a place in our society where frightened women are sexy women.
11/25/08
11/25/08
unless they've documented a verifiable uptick in sales since the advent of this calendar, i think it's just a puff piece that has nothing to do with more sales. you almost wonder if they tried a different approach instead of this calendar, if they'd actually sell more tires?
11/25/08
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11/25/08
As far as the objectification angle goes--women being made to look weak and subjugated by icky things, oh noes!--isn't the Jezebel audience supposed to have kind of a meta awareness of this stuff? I mean, objectification of women is so ingrained in our culture that it's sometimes hard to see through it and discourse above it. But do we really have to be TOLD when something is objectifying women? And when to get offended about it?
I just can't bring myself to be offended by this.
11/25/08
Since you think we are complete idiots here there is nothing to discuss about your other comments.
11/25/08
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11/25/08
Personally, I think the 1994 edition done by Herb Ritts with Naomi, Cindy, Helena, Kate and others is a definitive retrospective of the era of the supermodel.
11/25/08
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11/25/08
/sarcasm
11/25/08
On a lighter note, I enjoyed the video caption. "Models trotzen elefanten." Trotzen indeed!
11/25/08
11/25/08
But on the other hand:
-Do the models know what they're getting into?
-Are they getting paid well?
Yeah, this is kinda icky, and I don't like it when people are objectified whether in real life or in imagined worlds of entertainment and fashion, but if they're getting paid and they know what they're getting into, I just don't think this is that offensive. I understand that models are sometimes treated badly in this fucked up stupid world, but models and actors are paid handsomely to represent things that aren't real.
I'm not going to say "OH this horrid MAN! How DARE he" because I respect his right to create whatever artwork he wants, as long as no one's being harmed and everyone involved is a consenting, informed adult. (Of course, the elephants have no say in the matter, which bugs me.) But otherwise I just can't get too offended.
A final heartless, soulless parting shot: I would pose with a bucket of E. coli if I could get a few thousand bucks out of it.
11/25/08
Fuck. A little histrionic, even for Jezebel, isn't it?
11/25/08
I know it's not easy to be a model--Jezebel has run a lot of great features in the past on what models really go through, the long hours they work, the sacrifices they make--but the job of a model is to pose in various interesting ways for the sake of art, so other people can take pictures of them and observe them and highlight the human body. If these models knew what they were getting into, and did a job, and then got paid for it, and no one was harmed in the process, then what's the big deal?
Yeah, I don't like it when objectification is further promulgated and reinforced, but I just don't see how this is OMG STOP THE PRESSES HORRIBLE.
11/25/08