Because V Magazine have given anyone and everyone the power to digitally strip her!
We can speak about economics and the recession, be it the fact that its still here or the hope that things are getting better. But, personally I feel over the last twelve months that as a woman we are suffering a gender recession. By this I mean that we are actively undoing the decades of hard work we have undergone to prove our worth and be recognized as equal to our male counter parts. We have gone from the suffragettes and women’s liberation to full blown feminism, we have fought against sexual innuendos and sexual harassment in work and just as we seem to be getting places we ourselves have objectified ourselves and are promoting ourselves as objects of sexual desire willing to perform any act nude or semi nude to evoke a reaction from a male audience to gain approval, attention, sensationalism and publicity. Even our most successful, talented and beautiful women are turning to nudity to objectify themselves and the sad thing is that although its degrading they don’t seem to see it as so.
We were really getting close to being seen as equal to the men of the world in every avenue even down to our sexuality. There sadly will always be a furrowed brow and condemning finger ready to judge any woman's promiscuity, where as the men will always get a pat on the back, as many of our outspoken female icons have written and sang about. I'm sure most of us remember Christina Aguilera and Lil' Kim's "Can't Hold Us Down" from the album Stripped which directly addressed this issue. There is absolutely nothing wrong with women having sex for the sake of having sex and enjoying it! Yes, news flash, we can enjoy it too. For some reason there seems to be this notion, that to me seems uneducated along with many other things that a woman who has sex, one nights stands etc is opening their legs, being submissive and just taking it. This is just not the case we are living, breathing, red blooded, sexual creatures too and how dare anyone condemn us for it. I hear far too often men and women refer to another woman as a slut or a tramp because she has had a few one night stands and a few different partners, men say that they would never have a relationship with a woman who has been sexually promiscuous but they expect us as women to forgive their sexual promiscuity and encounters as just part of a mans life. They seek understanding putting their numerous partners, encounters and general sexual behavior down to the fact that ‘they think with their little head’. I’m sure we’ve all heard the expression ‘any holes a goal’ or as my aunt came out with once ‘a standing prick has no conscience’ but just because they have a penis does not mean they can take the higher moral ground when it comes to sex. Well, whats good for the goose is good for the gander as far as I’m concerned and its past time this hypocritical vein was removed from society. It never will be though so long as there are women out there who support these ludicrous and hypocritical and down right degrading views that men hold.... I digress
You see I have come to believe that these women such a Miley and Kate, whose recent cover for V Magazine has brought me to this point, are using their celebrity and objectifying themselves and being outspoken about their sexuality to dispel these stereotypical degrading and hypocritical views. Now I am well aware that this is just me surmising as I have no way of knowing why these beautiful, talented ladies subject themselves to this, it may in fact just be under the promise of popularity and publicity from the money hungry powers that be. The problem is however instead of dispelling them, they feed them. All you have to do is look at the comments under photos of these stars or the media coverage after their performances to see that the worlds reaction is not changing. The men applaud the nudity with gross undermining and animalistic approval and the woman and men who think they are morally superior call the women sluts and names that are just not acceptable. At the end of the day these are grown women and they can do what they like with their bodies. I will concede though that on one hand where i applaud their objectives I squirm when i see images such as this of Kate Upton. I cannot stress enough that it is not the fact that she appears in her lingerie on the cover it is the fact that with the swipe of a mouse ANYONE can undress her.
Yes our bodies and our sexuality are our own and should not be judged with such krass disgusting remarks but at the same time acts like this are no doubt spurred on by the male media moguls and are just bringing us right back to the drawing board. I am not one bit prudish but i do believe that pornographic imagery of strong successful women regresses our cause, it objectifies us and ultimately only serves for sensationalism to line the pockets of the men at the head of the companies and undoubtedly but sadly feed their wet dreams at night. This new Cover of V Magazine completely and utterly outraged me. It got my back up and I found it much more scandalous that any of Miley’s performances which i must admit I find mild compared to the antics of Rihanna. The idea of being able to scroll your mouse over an image to undress the actress as much or as little as you like is beyond scandalous and is absolutely degrading, dare I go so far as to suggest that its seedy and perverse. This is not the new cover of Playboy might I add but the cover of a well respected fashion and art magazine. V Magazine was launched in September 1999 and has since become both a printed publication and an online digital magazine. On their website in the about section this is what they say V is all about “V is large-format and visually-driven, international in scope and collaborative in spirit. V is a magazine about fashion with a capital F and all the things that go with it: art, music, film, architecture…you name it... V is a place where uptown meets downtown, celebrities mingle with total unknowns, high art converses with underground culture. Chic, wacky, fun, fabulous…in a letter V” And might I add surprise, surprise the editor is a man. I’m sure that they will claim that this is some attempt at fashion meets art, but i’m sorry i didn’t come down in the last shower. We all know that sex sells but this is totally perverse in my humble opinion.In direct comparison to this highly sexualized and softly pornographic cover here is the cover to the current Playboy magazine. A mens magazine infamous for its pornographic imagery, its cover featuring another Kate features less nudity and less scandalous female degredation than that of V Magazine. The title of the magazine "Why can't Kate Upton keep her clothes on?" is demeaning enough without the removeable clothing action.
Just as a matter of fact here is a little history to enlighten us all in the subject of pornographic magazines and their origins. The invention of halftone printing took pornography and erotica in new directions at the beginning of the 20th century. First appearing in France, the new magazines featured nude and semi-nude photographs on the cover and throughout. Now while these would now be termed softcore, they were quite shocking for the time. The publications soon masqueraded as "art magazines" until in the second half of the 20th century, pornography evolved into the men's magazines such as Playboy. As a matter of fact here is Playboy’s very first magazine cover.
Mild I know compared to the covers of mens magazines today, but the shocking part is that it is very mild in comparison the the cover of V magazine a fashion and “art” publication.
The function of this particular digital cover is disturbingly reminiscent of the slap stick soft porn of the second half of the 20th century. I am sure those of us of a certain vintage are familiar with the tip and strip pen. A pen with a feature bubble at the top with a woman or sometimes a man, appearing fully clothed however when you would tip the pen to write the garments would slip off the figure leaving them nude. Another example are these glasses where on one side the woman was fully clothed and on the other side they were nude. These were however a novelty product, novelty for whom some might ask, however it is a far cry from a virtual strip-a-gram on international fashion publication.
As a matter of fact V Magazine have taken this derrogative campaign even further and put feminism and my gender back roughly 50 years by pruducing limited edition strip and flip pens and heat reactive stripping mugs in commemoration of the cover. This is a respected publication not a street corner tacky tourist shop or 1950's top shelf magazine.
Please share your thoughts on this with me... does this disturb you or should I in fact just “Get a grip”?
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Images from vmagazine.com, playboy.com and tumblr.com
