The Affair

25 Mar 2013

The Fashion of Sexism

Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph published an interesting article today about the various aches, bruises, and pains that celebrities endure for the sake of fashion.

It makes for a good read, and I’d suggest you read it, because we really never see the “ugly side of fashion,” but it brought home something that I have often thought about when reading or watching reports on celebrity: they’re kind of sexist.

I could use the word misogynist, but that is now a very politically charged word in a currently very politically charged country, so I’m going to say “sexist.”

Why does coverage of female celebrities dwell on what they are wearing and how good they look?

We see this often in the magazines which place emphasis on which female celebrity is pregnant and after having the baby how quickly she loses that weight.

What sort of message does that send to mothers, especially first time ones (particularly in a country where there is a financial bonus for having a child)?

Presumably there’s a financial reason as to why, and indeed, in interviews editors have cited that they sell more issues, but the strange thing is that it’s now become so pervasive that we don’t see anything different.

And that financial reason grows less plausible as this “beauty at all costs” becomes the new normal.

But why is beauty at all costs always directed at women?

Our fellow programme, The Full Catastrophe recently did a podcast that addressed the issue of body image amongst gay & bisexual men.

As you can hear on the podcast, the gay & bisexual male community has a very complex relationship with its own media, which in some ways mirrors aspects of how the mainstream fashion media treats women.

I would like to read or hear about how the male partner struggles with weight after a birth, because having a child does affect both partners because it is a lifestyle change.

Still there are some signs of change: actor John Hamm has been effectively treated as an appendage based around some recent rumours and pictures.

Though what does it say about us as a society if for all the blood, sweat, and tears that actors go through is not rewarded for their skill of their craft, but for merely subjecting their bodies up for public scrutiny.

I was going to include a picture of a woman who had her foot bound (as was the fashion a couple of centuries ago), but decided against it. Still, I would encourage you to look it up as an example of the ugly price women have paid throughout the ages to “look good.”

Furthermore, I applaud the editors and writers who cover these “behind fashion” stories, they might only have a chance to do “once over lightly,” but if they can get one person to think, then they’ve done their job.