Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Victoria Secrets Fashion Show 2012


Clarissa Williamson

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fj1-cMFLPw

Victoria Secrets Fashion Show 2012

            Since the year 1995 the Victoria Secrets Fashion Show has captivated the American audience with its beautiful women displaying sexy lingerie, draped in embroidered silk and expensive jewelry.  This year’s fashion show was no different. There were four themes to the show: ballet, passion, aquatic angels, and spell on you. Each theme embodied a different stance on image and meaning. Some of the things the themes had in common were low-lighting, slow-motion angles, and women with barely anything on their bodies. Even the facial expressions by the models to the audience and/or camera in particular were seductive with bending over, constant winks, and blowing kisses to the camera. There were specific camera angles that were displayed throughout the show. Some of those being zoom-in shots of the private areas and bottom shots capable of looking up at the model. During the passion theme is where slow motion really came into play. The overall color of this specific theme was red which represents so many different meanings in the world of lingerie. Before the theme started designers gave a short description of where the inspiration came from. One of the bras created to highlight their views cost two and a half million dollars. The fashion show does a great job of displaying bodies of women in a beautiful light but how they portrayed it to the national audience is where their fault became apparent. According to Jhally (2011) “sexuality became a key feature of the image-system within this” (p. 203). I definitely feel like the fashion show plays on the male imagination and how they would like to see women portrayed. For example both performances during the show were down by males: Kanye West, Jay-Z, and Maroon 5. What the show lacked was representations of the average woman and how they play a role in being sexy along with racial diversity. There were only about four models with diverse attributes such as caramel or brown skin, or distinct eyes.

In between setting up for the next theme, certain models conducted interviews about their personal lives and what it was they were striving to be when they were younger. Even as the interviews were playing out, the major focus was on the models bodies because of what they were wearing. During the interviews, models wore the signature pink silk robe, which constantly fell to reveal the models chest or bra. Also during set-up the creative directors commented on how the vision or theme came about and what they were trying to portray from the runway, using words like seductive, innocence, and sensuality.

According to Kellner (2011) “media culture provides the material for constructing views of the world, behavior, and even identities” (p. 10). He also states how “media culture articulates the dominant values, political ideologies, and social developments and novelties of the era” (p. 10). The Victoria Secrets’ Fashion Show is a great example of the dominant values and social developments of this era. Within almost every media outlet women are constantly reminded that they must be tall and have or strive for a model figure. Also within media the over-weight women is limited in her sex-life, love-life, and even social-life. Rarely do we see as a culture, television advertisements geared toward the average or obese women pertaining to intimate clothing. These inferior ideologies continue to separate females into categories. Kellner (2011) states “Ideologies make inequalities and subordination appear natural and just, and thus induce consent to relations of domination” (p.11).

There are many different ways in which the fashion show can be perceived by an audience because of representation. Judith Mayne points out “the term “representation” is necessarily broad, encompassing the word as well as the image; “high” art and popular culture.” She also states that “representations require a medium, a form of expression, from the camera to the paintbrush and canvas” (p.161). For this particular text the medium is national television.  One way the show could be perceived is that it is displaying a woman’s body in a beautiful light, accentuating the beauty with luxurious wings and seductive fabrics. Another way it can be perceived is that is places women who don’t look like the models in a negative light and into inferior categories. This idea reinstates Mayne’s point that “women tend to be divided into two opposing categories; one representing impossible perfection, the other equally impossible evil, and usually it is sexuality that made the difference” (p.162). My overall opinion on the show is that I love to see women wearing beautiful apparel whether it is lingerie or gown.

References

Jhally, S. (2011). Image-based culture: Advertising and popular culture. G. Dines, & J. M. Humez (Eds.), Gender, race, and class in media: A critical reader. (pp. 199-204). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Kellner, D. (2011). Cultural studies, multiculturalism, and media culture. G. Dines, & J. M. Humez (Eds.), Gender, race, and class in media: A critical reader. (pp. 7-18). Thousand Oaks, CA:SAGE.

Mayne, J. Women, representation and culture. Reading womens lives.

2 comments:

  1. I agree with what you had said about the fashion show playing on male imagination and how they see women portrayed in these shows; sexuality is a key feature. I have never watched the Victoria Secret fashion show before until this year and I did like it. I thought all the themes were interesting and the outfits the girls wore were unique, and you could also tell that the designers put an extensive amount of work into each one of their pieces. About a week before the show premiered I heard my guy-friends talk about how they had to watch the show to see how hot the models looked walking down the runway in, “bras and panties,” and even when my guy-friends were actually watching the show they had even hoped one of the models breasts would pop out of their bras while walking. One could say this is how some guys typically act, but I thought and informed my friends that it was very demeaning towards women to talk about such a thing. It was clear that my friends were not interested in the art or hard work that was put into the show, they were just happy they got the chance to look at half-naked beautiful women for an hour on television.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The unmarked identities of hegemonic femininity is white, skinny, pretty, tall, and heterosexual, so it doesn’t surprise me that most of the models represent this. But when they do have a model that’s not white, they still are tall and extremely skinny and have distinct features. Its shows like these that give young women the idea that they can achieve these unattainable bodies. This show, like many others contribute to our view of things concerning us and our world around us. The show portrays the glamour of these women’s lives. Some of the models say they weren’t popular in high school and now there are girls that envy them and want their lifestyle but what they fail to mention is all the hard work and stress they have to go through to get to the point that they are at now. The fashion show makes it very hard for average women to feel comfortable in their bodies.

    ReplyDelete