I remember coming across a game online when I was around 18 entitled ‘Fashion or Porn’, the basis was a simple click-through multiple choice game of 40 rounds where the player was shown a small selection of an image and had to then decide whether it was a fashion image or a pornographic one.
https://archive.nssmag.com/fashion-or-porn
Since I was 16 I have been fascinated by the cross-over of sex and fashion, but not until playing that game did I start thinking about porn and its relationship to fashion imagery. I was shocked.
“it is increasingly difficult to draw the line, as sexually explicit themes, images even stylistic borrowings from pornography, influence mainstream media”
Pamela Church Gibson
The ancient Romans depicted sex scenes as far back as the first century and those same works of art are now proudly displayed in some of the most prestigious museums. I have begun to muse over the fine line between porn and fashion and have come up with many questions.
If we look at fashion photography, sex and fashion have always gone hand in hand. As we are aware, the fetishisation of the female form is rife in fashion advertising, as the famous ‘sex sells’ ideology tells us.
“If art is a reflection of life, and if sex plays such a huge role in all of our lives, why is porn not considered art? Did our moral make up get skewed over the course of the last century?”
Bradley Scott
Bradley Scott asks, ‘why can I admire and respect an erotic photograph by Helmut Newton, or Terry Richardson, or Juergen Teller…but not someone working at the Evil Angel production company?’ This is an interesting question – has it been the introduction of digitalised pornography which has caused sexual imagery depicted in this way to be so separated from fashion? Does it go back to the idea of paintings, sculptures and more ‘classical’ forms of art being viewed differently regardless of the concept?
I wonder, could it be that the easily accessible aspect of technology resulting in the abundance of amateur (and professional) pornography we see online, is just not as valued as tentative brush strokes on paintings which took the artist many years to complete? So, is it about respecting what society deems ‘Art’?
I find it quite funny how a beautiful naked woman in a painting created five centuries ago can make one feel completely different to seeing a half naked women in a cheap nurse costume today. What has changed?
One memorable moment for me was the Gucci advert where a models pubic hair was shaved into the brand’s ‘G’ logo, with a man kneeling before her and gazing at it. This evoked uproar and many people began to question the roles of women in advertising and how female sexuality is viewed. More recently, Eckhaus Latta’s very controversial Spring 2017 Campaign depicted real life sex acts. Their inspiration came from the Korean-German photographer Heji Shin, who a few years ago took a break from shooting editorials for magazines like 032c to photograph a sex education textbook for teenagers.
It clearly comes down to one thing – the internet. Instead of seeing images only when opening physical books or visiting museums, the abundance of content we can access is overwhelming. One could access the most niche digital product made specifically for sexual gratification at the tap of a few buttons.
I have become more interested in female sexuality and how it is represented through my exploration of the monstrous feminine. I am definitely going to read Pamela Church Gibson’s works and maybe look into pornography and the sex industry more.
https://www.hungertv.com/editorial/this-is-why-porn-film-festivals-are-so-important/