Fashionable Benneton bruises

It’s pretty clear that the fashion industry is not pro-woman. When models are dying of anorexia, the industry big-wigs are fighting new regulations saying that models must be a healthy weight. Fashion ads regularly portray women, especially women of color, as animals and objects. And there’s that disturbing new trend of using images of violence and rape in advertising.

So it should be pretty awesome that a big name in the fashion industry, United Colors of Benneton, has stepped up to fight domestic violence, right?

Well, it might be, if they didn’t do it like this:

Domestic violence is not fashionable. Violence in general is not fashionable, nor is rape. But, as a society, we are taught that fashion is, well, fashionable. Mixed messages, right?

If women and girls are constantly shown images of dead women, beaten women, bound women, raped women and ARE TOLD THESE WOMEN ARE BEAUTIFUL by the industry that DEFINES beauty, then eventually, some of them are going to start believing it.

And since we’re also taught from a young age that beauty is everything, with women’s magazines focusing almost exclusively on what bathing suit best flatters your frame, how to make your eyelashes look longer, choosing the right foundation, the best type of squats to get rid of butt flab, the best breakfast to help you lose weight … what higher goal does society dictate a woman should have, after over 150 years of women’s rights movements, than to be beautiful?

I’m also a bit disturbed that all of the models are women of color, especially with the “Colors of Domestic Violence” tagline. Domestic violence is a problem faced by all women, not just white women, not just women of color. It serves nobody any good to exoticize it.

It also does no good to have the women all just standing there, mostly expressionless, with no text except “Colors of Domestic Violence.” Are they against it or for it!? All it does is use these women without giving them a will or a message of their own. They are the sum of their clothing and fake bruises in these posters.

The problems women face: Domestic violence, rape, reproductive rights (including the right to keep the children you’ve given birth to, the right for women prisoners to give birth without being chained to a bed, the right to easily accessible, affordable birth control and abortions as well as health care and reproductive health care, etc.), the glass ceiling, the fact that the “face of poverty” is young single mothers, and so much more. And the fashion industry, with so much power, could do so much good.

Instead, they’re ignoring the problems, or glamorizing and trivializing them. This campaign from Benneton may have good intentions, but that’s not enough; as a friend of mine said, “Yeah, right, because I totally need to be sure that what I wear matches the bruises my boyfriend gave me last night when he beat me.” Is that really the message they want to give domestic violence victims? “He hits you, but at least you look hot”?

They would be much better served to offer a sale on their products with a percentage going to women’s shelters, organizations like the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and other resources like the National Domestic Violence Hotline (and their non-U.S. equivalents). Or, better yet, use their fancy corporate lawyers to offer legal support to organizations pushing for more stringent domestic violence laws.

Slapping some makeup on a few models to make them look battered and putting the resultant posters — Benneton clothing clean and carefully coordinated — everywhere there’s an open surface is likely to have the opposite result.

We can do so much better than that. We have to.

EDIT: Broadsheet has posted that these ads are not real, and Benneton is not involved in a domestic violence campaign. While I’ll be relieved if that’s true, this is still sick. And I don’t think moving on to armpit hair commercials is a great way to get over it, either.

EDIT II: Does Benneton lie? I was relieved to post that the ads were actually part of a sick prank (well, not relieved, because someone still thought of them, but at least glad that a major company hadn’t lent itself to such idiocy). However, I have now been tipped off that a magazine (my source couldn’t remember the name) has recently run an article about Benneton’s anti-violence campaign and ran photos of several similar ads. So is Benneton trying to cover its ass, or what? My source is going to bring in the magazine tomorrow, so I’ll post then at the latest, but if any of you know about any official word that Benneton will be running this campaign, I’m interested in seeing it.

College Racism Roundup has been updated

I’ve updated with links to blog entries about the University of Delaware’s “South of the Border” party. I bring this up mainly because, while there haven’t been many updates lately, this isn’t because the parties have died down. Students are just getting more careful about not letting photos get to the media or the wrong people (that is, those who might be offended).

As XicanoPwr points out in his post Racist Theme Parties: Freedom of speech or freedom to hate? there are plenty of invites on Facebook if you bother to search.

On June 23, in Columbia, MO group of young adult white males are gathering for a “Ghetto BBQ.”
On May 27, in Bloomington, IL a young white female had a “ghetto fabulous grad party” with the description, “It be hip hoppin yo.”
On May 25, in Denver, CO a young white male had a “Ghetto Trailer Trash” eviction party.
On May 19, in Lake Winnebago, MO a group of white young adults held a “ghetto garage party”
On May 15, in Virginia Beach, VA a group of young adult white females held a “Beach Babes and Ghetto Bitches” party
On April 15, in Whitewater, WI a group of young adult white males gathered for a “Thug Life Baby” party.
On March 31, in Pittsburgh, PA a group of white young adults held a “Thug’s and Hoe’s Party”

There are plenty more, too; when I did a search back in February, I ran across a few “FOB” parties, in addition to the “ghetto” parties, “stereotype” parties and “south of the border” parties that seem to make up the staples of racist white college student fun. They seem to have fallen out of favor for the summer months.

I was going somewhere with that, but I’m really sapped of energy today (the past several days, really) and I’ve lost my train of thought. Sorry. Although it does kind of speak for itself, doesn’t it?