25 January 2004
On the "polemic" picture of Chan Marshall in a New Yorker issue last year:
Get used to it
Kilbourne thinks the limits of vulgarity are getting pushed out.
"What would have struck us as vulgar and even pornographic not that long ago just slides by," she says. People have become desensitized to vulgarity, as they have to violence.
For several media specialists, though, the Avedon photo in an August issue of the New Yorker is daring, but not vulgar. Chan Marshall, who performs as Cat Power, strikes a straightforward, amused-by-it-all pose. Over her breasts, she holds up a Bob Dylan T-shirt. Her low-slung jeans are unzipped to reveal pubic hair.
"If she was in a pose where she was attempting to be seductive or something, then the image would slip into mere vulgarity," says Harry Haines, professor of communication at Trinity University in San Antonio. "For women in their 20s and 30s, this sort of in-your-face sexuality is probably pretty potent politically, as if to say, "Yeah. What you see is what you get.' It's very unapologetic and playful."
A spokeswoman for New Yorker editor David Remnick said he would not comment on the photo.
Trinity associate professor of communication Robert Huesca thinks it might be part of a strategy to attract hip younger readers to a magazine with a sophisticated but aging readership. He does not find the photo particularly tasteful, but he does not think it is obscene either.
"It will probably be disturbing to some people because it violates the master portrayal of women as seen in commercial ads and television," he says. "It signifies maturity, and the way the pants are open, it also signifies sexual availability. If we were baboons, that's what it would mean."
Jay Barth, who teaches gender sexuality and American politics at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., likes the candor of the photograph, finding it more honest than images of women that are shaved, waxed and airbrushed into unreality.
"We had centuries when a woman's pubic hair could not be seen at all because it was seen as so dirty and troubling. It was a sign of a woman's sexuality," Barth said. "You could make a good case that having women's sexuality more open has empowered women as sexual beings in a positive way."
Get used to it
Kilbourne thinks the limits of vulgarity are getting pushed out.
"What would have struck us as vulgar and even pornographic not that long ago just slides by," she says. People have become desensitized to vulgarity, as they have to violence.
For several media specialists, though, the Avedon photo in an August issue of the New Yorker is daring, but not vulgar. Chan Marshall, who performs as Cat Power, strikes a straightforward, amused-by-it-all pose. Over her breasts, she holds up a Bob Dylan T-shirt. Her low-slung jeans are unzipped to reveal pubic hair.
"If she was in a pose where she was attempting to be seductive or something, then the image would slip into mere vulgarity," says Harry Haines, professor of communication at Trinity University in San Antonio. "For women in their 20s and 30s, this sort of in-your-face sexuality is probably pretty potent politically, as if to say, "Yeah. What you see is what you get.' It's very unapologetic and playful."
A spokeswoman for New Yorker editor David Remnick said he would not comment on the photo.
Trinity associate professor of communication Robert Huesca thinks it might be part of a strategy to attract hip younger readers to a magazine with a sophisticated but aging readership. He does not find the photo particularly tasteful, but he does not think it is obscene either.
"It will probably be disturbing to some people because it violates the master portrayal of women as seen in commercial ads and television," he says. "It signifies maturity, and the way the pants are open, it also signifies sexual availability. If we were baboons, that's what it would mean."
Jay Barth, who teaches gender sexuality and American politics at Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., likes the candor of the photograph, finding it more honest than images of women that are shaved, waxed and airbrushed into unreality.
"We had centuries when a woman's pubic hair could not be seen at all because it was seen as so dirty and troubling. It was a sign of a woman's sexuality," Barth said. "You could make a good case that having women's sexuality more open has empowered women as sexual beings in a positive way."
