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In reply to the discussion: Because the 'Swimsuit Issue' is not an original concept… [View all]MineralMan
(146,281 posts)not really the point. That's what they do for a living. That's not where the objectification comes in, really. Nobody here on DU knows those models. Few people know those models. For those viewing the photos, the models are not individual people. They are women dressed in a thong and no top. I'm talking about the SI models, of course. The models in those older photos and ads are wearing suits that leave plenty to the imagination.
Still, though, the images are of unnamed women and are designed to sell products. A number of the older photos were in publications read mostly by women, unlike the SI article. Still, all are designed to sell something, not to identify the women in the photos as individual people.
Sex sells. It really does. So, it gets used to sell.
In all of those photos both today and back then, the women represented some standard of beauty. But, they are not individuals who people want to know personally. They are objects in bathing suits. For some, they may stimulate the desire to buy a swimsuit in hopes of looking like those women. For others, they stimulate something else altogether. But the models don't matter as individuals. They matter only because they represent some standard of beauty. The models are individuals, of course, but in the photographs, they are objects wearing swim suits or less.