Academic

Are Ads Like This Okay If The Model Was Bettie Page?

By Ann Bartow

Ad copied from here. I’m not posing the question in the post title seriously, in case that needs saying. I’m just kind of surprised that some of the bloggers who (correctly) take issue with the above clothing ad haven’t challenged the “Bettie Page as exuberant icon of sexual liberation” narrative. I don’t find the duncan quinn ad all that different than this:

…especially since Bettie Page has publicly said she felt she had to do bondage shoots to continue to get other work, and that the pain reflected in her facial expressions in some of the photos is real. Google Bettie Page and bondage if you want to see photos of Bettie feigning (one hopes) unconsciousness just like the model above, and in very similar poses.

Full post as published by Feminist Law Professors on December 17, 2008 (boomark / email).