A new commercial for Lane Bryant’s new lingerie line, Cacique, has been censored by Fox and ABC, both of which eventually agreed to air the commercial only in the final moments of “Dancing with the Star” and “American Idol” – Fox agreeing only after Lane Bryant threatened to pull the ad buy.
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One of the networks even claimed that the woman in Lane Bryant’s commercial has “too much cleavage.” It’s a lingerie commercial. Isn’t cleavage the point? And why are Victoria’s Secret models allowed to have cleavage but plus-size models aren’t?
Lane Bryant’s Plus-Size Lingerie Commercial Gets Censored by Networks
So. This immediately made me think of the story I read somewhere, that even though Breakfast at Tiffany’s was written essentially for Marilyn Monroe, the filmmakers who adapted it cast Audrey Hepburn because if Marilyn was the star it would be immediately obvious that Holly Golightly was a call girl. But Audrey was “classy.”
Which is just one of the reasons that the movie annoys the shit out of me but I love the novella, but that’s another story. But it reminds me of the fact that there’s more than just one step in the characterization—and hierarchy—of women’s bodies.
There’s skinny, which is both shown as desirable by high fashion and also regularly mocked as anorexic by people, some well-intentioned, who want to promote a more healthy ideal. There’s thin, the ideal, which we are all supposed to aspire to. Audrey Hepburn. Classy. Then there’s curvy, muscular, and fat.
Once you slip into “fat” territory, most of society considers you completely unsexual. Which is what this piece here was referring to—fat women aren’t allowed to be sexy on television! Which is certainly true, but plus-size models are rarely more than a size 12 or 14.
Instead, I think the trap they’re falling into here is the trap of the curvy girl whose body is ALWAYS sexual. Large breasts? COVER THOSE THINGS UP! How dare you wear a low-necked shirt or god forbid you leave the bra at home. The fabulous m_leblanc noted on Twitter yesterday:
As a possessor of great cleavage I greatly resent cultural imperative that I must wear only high-necked garments. Eff that.
It’s true. And forget about the big butt. Let’s just not even go there, shall we? leblanc commented, in the same day, on the Lane Bryant commercial:
The censoring of the Lane Bryant lingerie ads reminds me of how many girls (including me) got labeled sluts for having big boobs.
Marilyn’s body was sex. Audrey was classy. Marilyn was a slut who got what she deserved.
I don’t have much in common with Marilyn Monroe besides a body type. One that with steady exercise and a decent diet gets toned fairly easily but always remains curvy, the boobs the first thing into the room and the ass the thing that holds attention when I walk away. Eat badly for a month or so, though, and slack on the running/pushups/whatever, and I can easily fall off the scale from sexy to fat, which then renders you unnoticable. From “she should cover up!” to “ew, why is she wearing that?”
Too much cleavage. Yep, been there. Also had my bra status commented on one too many times by people whose business it was absolutely none of, while thinner girls next to me blithely trotted around in tube tops and short shorts.
I had fights with my ex over my clothes constantly, in which I tried to explain to him how fucked up it was that my body was presumed to be sexual, my summer spaghetti-strap tank top available for comment, my shorts slutty. These are universal female problems, to be sure. But there’s a special place in catcall-and-bitchy-comment hell for the girl whose body is just a little bit unruly. (Just a little bit, of course.)
And this is fucked up for so many reasons. Fucked up that Lane Bryant can’t advertise its bras but Victoria’s Secret can, even if their ads both only showcase a tiny bit of the body types their stores actually cater to. Fucked up that we’ve got a bunch of categories to stick women’s bodies in, and fucked up that we decide one is sexual and one is not. That one is classy and one should cover up. That one can take a character who goes on dates for powder room money and sleeps most of the day (and a male character who is GAY) and make her “classy” and have a happy love story made out of it, and the other would immediately telegraph that OMG of course she was sleeping with all those men and ew what a slut and no wonder she couldn’t get a decent guy. Because LOOK at her.
Which of course was telegraphed to all of us in my generation by the classic opener to the Sir Mix-A-Lot song, Baby Got Back.
(Yes, I just mixed the shit out of my pop culture metaphors. Deal with it.)
(via champagnecandy)
(via ilovefat)
