Daily Archives: March 20, 2015

American Apparel, again

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We’ve written about American Apparel before, when they were setting out mannequins with pubic hair and visible nipples.

Checking the date, it seems it’s exactly a year ago that I wrote that blog post, and the cynic in me is already thinking ‘is it the time of year when American Apparel courts controversy already?’

This year, it’s not the presence of nipples and girl fur on mannequins that’s the issue, it’s the lack of either on their models.

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Above, after airbrushing and below, the same model (and bra) as seen on the company’s website.

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You can read more at the Animal website, where Michelle Lytle, an anti-censorship activist and co-founder of a nipple-print bikini top called the TaTa Top is quoted as saying that “American Apparel has taken many stances with their ‘legalize gay’ and ‘legalize LA’ shirts. To see them taking a strong stance on those issues but not on women’s equality is disappointing.”

Note: The Tata Top is a bikini top that comes in flesh tones to create the impression, from distance, that the wearer is topless (see image below)

 

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Ella

 

Great? Or gross?

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I’ve received a short but fairly angry contribution from a reader, whom I’ll not name as I expect that there may be responses with equally angry vigour.

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Around the SL grid there’s a lot of women wearing tattoos. The SL blogosphere is full of models sporting them. Real life is now that even nerdy, staid, middle class girls will have a couple of tattoos. Our contributor has the following to say about real life tattoos.

There is not one person on the face of the planet who looks ‘better’ for having a tattoo. A lot of pretty girls are, from a personal perspective, ruined with the application of a tattoo. They -the tattoos- look cheap & tacky, the girl herself made to look cheap and skanky.

When the trend for tattoos began, it was only women of a certain class that wore them. They weren’t called ‘the tramp stamp‘ for nothing.

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Blokes look stupid wearing tattoos. Women look stupid and cheap. I hope the fashion for tattoos goes out of style soon. There’s a whole generation out there who are going to regret their f****** stupid decisions in later life.

 

Short and to the point. So what’s your take on tattoos? Like them? Loathe them? Have them? Wouldn’t dream of one? Classy? Tacky?

And if you’re an SL avatar, does your approach to tattoos follow RL? Or do you have a whole different attitude to SL tattoos (love them) as you would to RL tattoos (loathe them)?

Let me know.

 

Ella

 

Ex-pose : verb

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It feels to me that barely a week goes by without there being another photographic exhibition to report on, wherein women are shown in various states of undress.

I find these exhibitions to be thrilling and depressing in equal parts. Thrilling in that there are everyday women who will readily strip off for a camera, proud of her own body, less cowed by an unrealistic, unattainable media ‘ideal’ than once might have been the case. Depressing in that we need to keep repeating exhibitions/projects of this kind, week in, week out as if we have to say ‘hey, it’s OK not to be size 6’.

The latest project of this type I’ve seen is Ex:pose, a photographic project by Liora K & Jes Baker, wherein women of a variety of shapes, sizes and colours pose for the camera. Mostly individual shots, with a few group shots that I felt resembled Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Electric Ladyland’ album cover (the UK version).

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We’ll show that rather than Liora & Jes’s photos, SLN’s usual approach to the copyrighted work of others. Yeah, as usual, click the link and go to the website.

I was rather taken with the set in which women were stripped to uniform black panties, something that seemed to tie the entire shoot together (that part of it, certainly).

With this in mind I rounded up willing SL volunteer (me, in other words) to do a shoot in a similar style.

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Diane