Let's get it out of the way. Isn't it fun when guys stick perfume sticks up our asses, girls? Yeahhhh no. No no.
Let me break this down. This is Tom Ford advertising his brand name scents. It is almost as if Tom Ford is showing us how dominant his brand is simply because unlike other fashion brands, he sticks paper perfume sticks up a female's butt. Boy is that power or what? By using a thin, white, and nude model he is showing his followers and gazers that he (the man with the power, or perfume sticks) is the dominant force in not only using women BUT in fashion.
Ford is literally invading a woman and is trying to make that invasion beautiful. What makes this not beautiful is that it makes the observer feel invaded. It strips any sense of power that we as women felt we had and puts us back in the secondary sphere. While he may be trying to empower the female form (I don't know the ideology behind this, I am only discussing the possible cultural effect), he pushes us back down the ladder of social standing. Once again we are not seen as active and diverse beings but instead as still and impassive tools to be used for a mans creation and will.
I dislike feeling powerless. What I would like to do is to gather a group of people in the Seattle area to sit down with me and dissect these images. I want to see past what I think and see what other people think. I believe that this is where social media forms come in. Let's discuss this stuff. Let's figure out what we can do about this stuff, IF anything. But by God let's have a voice. I am so sick of people seeing images like this and thinking that it's okay because "that's the way things are." Well things are only the way that they are because no one bothers to care. Let's care people.
