French Vogue image
Notions of gender, beauty and sexuality in society are right up there in complexity with ethnicity. At the helm of questions concerning gender, childhood and fashion right now is Thylane Lena Rose Blondeau. The issues surrounding her photo shoots and fashion walks at age 10 include: Is she being sexualized in a way which is akin to pedophilia by the fashion world? The answer is not so simple. The question of sex and age in term of when one should marry or be considered sexual vary from culture to culture. The question for this blogger/anthropologist is what does this tell us about western notions of women and beauty? How can we women deem ourselves successful women when our bodies are nothing like a 10 year old girl? Traditionally in the fashion industry models start young as well as child actors so this is nothing new. On the one hand, Thylane has great features and is photogenic on
the other what about the content of her photos?
I am all for fashion and art but....let's think on this one. We see children used in all kinds of media campaigns and honestly you kind of need to be against the use of children on T.V. and in magazines to completely critique her images as “creepy” in order to not be hypocritical. While Toddlers in oTiaras is creepy as they “flirt” with judges in bikinis and get points for reenacting the taught traits such as be flirty, fun, sexy, how use your body to get want you want..... Thylane plays into this by wearing sexy clothes and makeup but in real life seems to come from a privileged background; the daughter of a model and famous soccer player and does not overtly seem exploited. However, like the baby beauty queens in tiaras she helps tell the modern fairy tale of what a girl and woman should be in terms of gender. Their images and tales educate the new generation and speak to some deep seeded gender notions in our society. Yes -notions of gender change, yes not all of us are afraid to seem unlady like or wear pink all the time. If gender notions stayed the same we would all still be wearing hoop skirts accentuating fertility as our social role. Gender roles, the tasks and roles assigned to each of the sexes by society, come into play here. They essentially say women should work in this field or do this and men in this area. Thankfully this varies from society to society and time period.
So what does Thylane's over made up photos and "going native" shots unconsciously tap into culturally? There our some icons being used here such as; the "Native" and the women with wild animals. For instance, there are images of Native American and African women astride wild not domestic animals dating back to the 16th and 17th century. Thus, the use of her in native or savage garb relates to older feather clad native colonial imagery and sexual desire. Native American and African women were depicted as dangerous, taboo and sexually desired -covertly looked at sexual objects in a voyeuristic fashion. In other photos she is clearly the feminine fetish for both women and male viewers.
Image property of Sara B. Photo of Brazilian street party poster.
The gaze and looking is just as much a part of these fetishes as anything else. What do women want to see when they buy products – ultimately we are in control and contribute to this imagery in terms of the fashion world? She will no doubt be a supermodel but the use of her photos tell us tales of boyish, impossibly no hipped silhouettes, flawless baby like skin and a infant size 0 as something to strive for in order to be a beautiful woman.“Creepy” as some have called her images maybe, sexy as others say or what we read into images as others blog. I say our cultures teach us how to speak, what to value, what to worship, our roles - so is this all part of a new fairy tale or the same one we keep selling and telling?
See the news story at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8BbZhfmgfY&feature=player_detailpage
From jezebel.com and their article see: http://jezebel.com/5827092/fashion-industry-salivates-over-creepy-photos-of-10+year+old-french-girl
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