Photographer/journalist Petra Collins recently designed a
t-shirt for American Apparel. The shirt caused much controversy because of the
image she designed and printed onto it. The image is a simplistic line drawing
that depicts a masturbating, menstruating woman with pubic hair. Reactions to
the shirt included “vile”, “icky”, “disgusting”, “horrible”, etc. Many media
outlets such as Time, the Daily Mail, and the Huffington Post have written
articles about the shirt trying to “figure out the controversy”. The problem
with Petra’s t-shirt is not that there is a naked woman on the t-shirt. We can
see by visiting urban outfitters that women’s naked bodies are on t-shirts all
the time.
- http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=29337078&parentid=M_APP_TEESSHORT
- http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=27481100&parentid=M_APP_TEESSHORT
- http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=24586349&parentid=M_APP_TEESSHORT
- http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/urban/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=28820116&parentid=M_APP_TEESSHORT
The difference between these t-shirts and Petra Collins
t-shirt is that on Petra’s shirt the woman is no longer a sexual object. The
woman on the shirt is completely natural (a major taboo) and not hiding the
fact that she is menstruating (another major taboo). It can also be inferred that
because the woman is masturbating she is receiving sexual pleasure. This in
itself is a societal taboo, but the cherry on top of Petra’s
shirt is that there is no man involved. Ultimately, the t-shirt denies the male
gaze. A woman is pleasuring herself in her most natural state, and because she
is no longer sexualized for the purposes of pleasing a male, it is seen as “offensive”.
Interview with Petra Collins about t-shirt: http://www.vice.com/read/chatting-with-petra-collins-about-her-menstruating-vagina-shirt
Observation: Countless horror films with scenes depicting sexual violence against women are rated PG-13 while the film “Blue Valentine” was rated NC-17 because a woman receives oral sex.
It is interesting to see how the media shapes our views of what is appropriate or acceptable. Women are built up to look and be certain ways, especially in fashion, and when you go against that it you are seen as offensive and inappropriate.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny I work at American Apparel and I hadn't seen/heard of this shirt. This is a really interesting topic, it's so taboo that it catches the attention of others and I like that. You have a good argument pointing out the fact that there are naked women on shirts all the time. I think it is so weird that people find menstruation so taboo when it happens to almost every woman quite regularly. But still when we run into the nearest store to grab a box of hygiene products we've got to wear a mask and hide the box in our arms because people really do just stare. And then I love when women are portrayed as weak when I've seen grown men faint at the sight of blood. Ah womanhood.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this great post, Talia! I saw this article and I'm glad to hear your thoughts. Do you think the general reaction would have been different in any way if the shirt had been designed by a man, if you think it would have been different at all? Would you have reacted differently? There are no hidden agendas in those questions. Just pure D curiosity, and please don't feel obligated to answer them. You girls rule.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe the man would be able to explain the point of the shirt before people started calling him a "pervert" or "disgusting". I would be supportive of a man designing a shirt like this one but I see it as unlikely because this subject is probably not something most men have thought about. I hope I answered your questions :) glad you read the article!!
DeleteI'm not ok with a female's body being on any type of clothing. I don't think it is necessary to place a naked body on a tshirt to make sales. Maybe I'm just a little bit too conservative but I don't care for the idea of someone portraying sex acts on clothing. Thank you for posting this. I had no idea that this company created this.
ReplyDelete