Fashion as Objectification: Writing This While Watching AIPAC Coverage on CNN, Here's To Hoping Its Cohesive

I recently went to the Alexander Mcqueen exhibit at the Met with a friend. The exhibit has a quote from Mcqueen where he explained that he was an artist, and fashion was his medium. Watching the videos of his fashion shows, I could not help but think that is fashion was his medium, so were the women who wore his clothes, who were transformed into objects on which to display his work.

Seeing the exhibit reminded me of an article I read in a fashion magazine by a woman who felt that her fashion savoir faire got in the way of her looking beautiful, because the outfits that were a la mode were not necessarily flattering. I realized that this woman was turning her body into a canvas on which to exhibit fashion, and to show off her creativity through the mixing and matching of various items to form a complete outfit, as opposed to using clothes as a way to exhibit her own body's beauty - which might in it and of itself be a different sort of objectification.

Later that day, as I applied eyeliner, it occurred to me: I was literally painting my face, literally transforming myself into a canvas. Oddly enough, this did not make me feel objectified. Streaking stripes across my face, I felt more like a tiger, ready to pounce at the world with my claws.

Then, today, a friend sent me the following link: http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2011/05/18/what-makes-a-body-obscene/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SociologicalImagesSeeingIsBelieving+%28Sociological+Images%3A+Seeing+Is+Believing%29 which, while not about fashion per se, made me think a bit about clothes and the fashion industry.

I think that the reason women are expected to cover their chests and men are not, is that our clothing standards have traditionally been set by a white straight male world, which viewed women's breasts as sexual turn-ons that must be covered the same way other sexual areas must be covered, whereas men's chests were viewed as sexually neutral territory. (President Obama has just been introduced on TV.) This white straight male hegemony was responsible for corsets and bustles, and, I believe - though have yet to do research on this - bras. I can not imagine any woman creating such an uncomfortable contraption (though you never know): It seems that main job of bras is either a) to minimize bounce, thus allowing straight men to avoid dealing with a less sexy part of a sexual organ, the same way tampons/sanitary napkins allow men to avoid dealing with the fact of women's menstruation - a less sexy fact of the woman's sexual anatomy b) to make women's breasts look beautiful - to make them look bigger, or perkier, or shaped in a certain way, or to cover them in lace and other designs that would make them more attractive to a man. Of course, some bras are designed for women's comfort - most noticeably sports bras (applause at the word "reaffirmed" - huh?), but these are not considered bras appropriate for everyday use outside of athletic activities, and are certainly considered unsexy and nebbish (or gay - quite literally) by the fashion world.