Reaction Suitsupply to Shameless campaign
Amsterdam | 26 november 2010
The SHAMELESS campaign is a mix of style and eroticism, which together embodies the very essence of fashion. It is relevant from a fashion perspective because we wear clothes not only to keep warm or to cover our shame. Clothing is also a means of making yourself seen, without shame, hence the theme ‘SHAMELESS’. The men and woman depicted in these images are making themselves seen in an equally shameless manner. (She is enjoying the attention while he looks on without shame).
The images are like scenes from a movie, and it is up to the viewer to imagine a beginning and an ending. We do not accept any responsibility for the imagination of the viewer. Especially not in the case of complaining individuals who project their own submissive attitude towards women onto our images.
Looking from a feminist perspective, you might see female oppression, because this is the objective of the perspective. However, if you look at it from a broader viewpoint, you will realize that it actually conveys the adoration of the superior female beauty and sexuality. On these pictures the man is not dominating; the female is the undivided center of attention and devotion.
The female image in this campaign is that of a superior goddess. It is no coincidence that she is always the same individual throughout, whereas the male role is played by multiple models. The males are interchangeable; they have no identity; she doesn’t allow them to. She doesn’t seem to be dependent on the men at all to achieve sexual arousal. She is the queen among interchangeable working ants.
For the American author Camille Paglia, this depiction of women as goddesses is not only a metaphor. In her famous and controversial book entitled “Sexual Personae” she draws a parallel with the pre-Christian mother goddesses from pagan religions where women are the embodiment of nature and possess the overwhelming power to give and take life. Paglia argues that women are the dominant sex and men are sentenced to a life of sexual tension. She catches him in an irresistible longing for reunion with her, while this reunion is also his ruin, manifested in his return to the mother lap which means the loss of his hard-earned male identity and independence. The depiction of women as lust objects in modern image culture is not seen by Paglia as demeaning of women, but as a reawakening of her heathen superiority. Something which should be welcomed by modern feminism.
