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To
love or hate your body are
two mistakes to avoid. Narcissism and self-hate, money and suicide are
of the same substance.
Philippe
Sollers, French writer (1936
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Christian
Blachas, a seasoned observer of world advertising and publisher of the French magazine
Culturepubmag, decodes the images of the body surrounding us
Has
the spread of globalization produced an increasingly standardized ideal of the human
body?
Oddly enough, the more globalization advances, the less of a single
ideal there is. As far as pure physical beauty goes, the American model prevailed
for several decades. It changed slowly, from brunettes like Audrey Hepburn and Lauren
Bacall to blondes epitomized by Marilyn Monroe and others. Then various ethnic groups
demanded their place in advertising. The result is that today, a wide range of human
models is held up to us.
To what extent does advertising create people’s image of the human body?
That image comes to us from the fashion world. People like to say advertising starts
trends, like the recent wave of “fashion pornography.” But this came straight from
designers and fashion journalists. The job of advertising is to pick up on trends.
It’s rarely subversive because brands don’t gain anything from shocking people too
much. Advertising’s a remarkable mirror, but it doesn’t start fads.
So are the accusations unfair that advertising has created an ultra-thin ideal
of the body, as personified by top model Kate Moss?
Kate Moss has certainly had a big influence on anorexic teenagers, but it isn’t just
because of advertising. It’s her presence on the screen. Music, video clips and television
are just as responsible as advertising for promoting this ideal of thinness.
The image of men has changed quite a lot too, hasn’t it?
The depiction of homosexuals, especially in France, is a major revolution. Surveys
show people aren’t in the least shocked by the presence of homosexuals in advertising
images. All this has helped to win acceptance for the idea that a man has the right
to take care of his body. Sales of male beauty products are booming. Men are trying
to find their bearings. Their three reasons for being, in the West at least–going
to war, bringing home the bacon and making babies –are disappearing as more women
work and science advances. Men have mentally accepted that they should do housework
(though only three percent actually do any) and help to look after their children.
But women are also calling for men to be more masculine again, while demanding they
show a sensitive, feminine side…
Advertising reflects this confusion.
Absolutely. France is the country that seems to have the freest attitude by far to
morals and morality. The Anglo-Saxons are very prudish. You never see naked breasts
in American ads. Three years ago, there was an uproar when the lingerie firm Victoria’s
Secret mounted a big advertising campaign in the United States, complete with parades
by top models. It was the first time people had seen women moving in public wearing
nothing but a bra and panties. We’d been seeing that on French television for 20
years.
Has that image become routine?
Yes, and we’re not bothered by it. A recent survey we conducted showed that most
French people aren’t shocked when they see very sex-oriented advertising. Scandinavian
countries have even less of a complex with regard to nudity, although the images
are not erotic. They are very puritanical Protestant societies.
In France, a law has been suggested to safeguard the image of women in advertising.
Some feminist groups deplore excessively sexual advertising and the depiction of
women as objects, but I think it’s dangerous to pass laws about that. Who’s going
to decide what’s what? It’s not up to judges to say whether an ad is degrading to
women. People will eventually get bored with very sexual images and a balance will
be restored naturally.
Are there any taboos left in the way the human body is depicted?
The last taboos, thankfully, are pedophilia and zoophilia. The trend of portraying
sado-masochism shocks feminists but at the same time, advertising works with fantasies.
If there’s no physical threat to the human body, such allusions can’t go very far. |
