Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
There was once a day when racy ads by Calvin Klein were cutting edge, but a new underwear ad featuring a creepy upskirt shot of a young model in skimpy underwear is making the retailer look more like a bunch of aging pedophiles.
The Daily Mail is reporting on Calvin Klein’s latest offense which appeared on Instagram this week and features an up-skirt shot of Dutch actress Klara Kristen, 22, wearing polka-dot underwear with the caption, “I flash in #myCalvins.”
If this ad was supposed to be hip and trendy, it turned out to be total bomb. Most people on Instagram thought it was creepy and called it the stuff of pedophiles.
One commenter wrote: “Good picture for paedophiles” while another called it “Misogynistic rubbish bordering on pedophilia. Gross. . . “
Another expressed the frustration of many women with the way advertisers portray them. “I’m so sick of advertisers doing this. Parading teenage girls as sex symbols and advertising women’s stuff in overtly sexualized ways.”
Her feelings were echoed in the comment of another woman who said: “I think this might be the most disgusting and misogynistic advert I’ve ever come across. Those in charge of this should be utterly ashamed.”
This is the second time this year that the retailer has been in trouble for its sexist portrayal of women. They came under fire earlier this year for a billboard advertisement in New York City that once again featured Kristen flashing her underwear with the caption, “I seduce in my Calvins.” This ad is shown right next to the face of rapper Fetty Wrap under the caption, “I make money in my Calvins.”
In other words, women are defined by the underwear while men are defined by their careers. Talk about stereotyping!
The billboard drew so much criticism from women that a petition was launched at Change.org entitled #Morethanmyunderwear asking the company to remove the ad.
“The billboard propagates an archaic and offensive gender stereotype that women are nothing more than sexual objects, while men are the breadwinners,” the petition reads.
“Calvin Klein has a vast assortment of content for this campaign, so we find it appalling that the company chose to put these two images side by side in one of the most highly visible intersections in the country. Is the message of Calvin Klein that women are only good for seduction? Are we stuck in the 1950s? Are these the values of the Calvin Klein brand?”
Only 242 people signed on before the company promptly removed the ads.
It’s up to us to fight these degrading images of women which have proven so destructive to our sense of self-worth and esteem. Worse, they are grooming our sons and daughters to grow up with a distorted view of the meaning of sexuality, making it all about bodily pleasure rather than what all of us really want – love, family and new life.
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Women of Grace,and the new Young Women of Grace, is devoted to fighting these degrading stereotypes by promoting authentic femininity.
