Breslin and Debauchette are advocating a decidedly sex-positive agenda, and they've both been heavily snarked by Jez commenters and others in the past, so I think there's a definite embrace of the controversy, on their parts.

I don't know I'd say that they are shilling, but that's just my opinion.

I am glad you wrote the post, though, Tatiana, and I feel you gave it a thoughtful examination.

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I didn't allege, by the way, that she or Breslin had been paid to post -- just that the posts in question read as if they had. I do think that was a bad judgment call on the part of these two smart and talented women.

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That said, I'm still not sure what exactly has you so riled. That AA is creating these ads? That bloggers are choosing to run them? That the ads themselves, and the models therein, are not being honest about their pornification and/or digital enhancement? Or that the women who ran them took the best-offense-is-a-strong-defense tack?

I have written what you would no doubt call an "outré" blog myself, and while I wouldn't have chosen to run these ads on my pretty dumb things, I don't quite comprehend your ire--or that of the responding Jezzies.

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I suppose what has me riled, if it wasn't clear in the post, is the masquerade of it all. "Jillian" isn't, as claimed, an "employee" like any you might just bump into at the Los Altos store; her name isn't even Jillian. She's a porn star. American Apparel isn't any more honest in its advertising practices than any other major clothing brand, but it positions itself as such. It lies about how it's not lying to you. Even if it's true that they don't "airbrush" their models -- and I'm 100% certain that their creative team uses some PhotoShop to do things like color correction, at the very least -- they airbrush reality by insinuating that posing for them is likely to lead to more modeling jobs in future. Meanwhile they trumpet their presumed "cool" and sucker in amateurs on purpose in order to get away with grossly underpaying their models. It's all fundamentally dishonest. If American Apparel has a point of difference, it is that it's possibly more exploitative than the fashion industry in general.

So seeing two sensible independent-minded women excitedly agree to become vectors of corporate marketing for the equivalent of a pat on the head from the cool guy in class was disappointing.

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Also, I feel bad because all the web comics I read have their snarky t-shirts on American Apparel. So I lack snarky t-shirts.

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I'm no prude but they kinda gross me out.

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