What the hell is going on with these asshole "fashion" photographers?

[Archae]

"Let's get everyone's attention by beating women up!"
"Huh huh, huh huh huh..."

"Yeah! That'll be cool!"
"Heh heh...eh heh heh heh..."

What is it about bruises that fashion photographers find so sexy? The latest attempt to court controversy comes from photographer Tyler Shields and his subject, Glee actress Heather Morris. In a series of art-directed shots on his website, Morris poses with a painted-on black eye and a clothing iron, in a whimsical 1950's dress.

"Even Barbie gets bruises," writes Shields on his blog, where he's hawking 100 limited edition prints from the shoot.

More shocking than the photos' light-hearted depiction of domestic violence, is the de ja vu factor. Haven't we seen this before, like, a lot? Only a few weeks ago, we were talking about a Salon ad with a photo of a bruised model. And before that, a handful of high fashion campaigns featuring women being beaten, bruised, and impaled. Domestic violence, it seems, has become the surefire way to get your fashion spread to stand out.

"In no way were we promoting domestic violence," Shields tells E! News. "We wanted to do a bruised-up Barbie shoot and that's exactly what we did!"

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/beauty/glee-star-latest-fashion-victim-in-offensive-shoot-black-and-blue-is-not-the-new-black-2539137/

[lob1]

1. A few years ago the rage was heroine sheik...

models in nice clothes passed out in toilets, stuff like that. I didn't get it. I'll stick to my Levis and grass, thank you.

[reggie the dog]

13. my girlfriend was beaten by her x

if i see the fucker try to hit her again he will be the bruised one, any fucker lays a hand on my daughter and bruises will be the least of their worries, and if my daughter starts doing heroin she will get all the help in the world to get off of it by me.... heroin sheek, fucking hell lets all just nod out to look sexy, what kind of men find a passed out woman sexy? i prefer my partners to be interactive.....

[kenny blankenship]

31. Heroine Sheik - I'm sure I saw that movie, or part of it. Only the 2nd reel exists, or the 3rd.

Hang on, was that Garbo or Dietrich?

[alcibiades_mystery]

32. Future reference, "sheik" = chic

Just sayin'...

:-)

[pipi_k]

35. And....

"Heroine" = "Heroin"

;)

[lob1]

45. Thanks for your correction, too. It was a bad night.

[boppers]

48. Hey, a female, middle-east, warrior-idol-leader, was amusing for a millisecond.

Even if it wasn't what was intended.

[lob1]

44. Thanks for the correction. I'm not very sheik or chic myself.

[KittyWampus]

49. Wearing plain old clothes too.

[emilyg]

2. Stupid people.

[Bonobo]

3. I just looked at the link. You're right.

It was sick.

I withdraw my labored defense.

[trueblue2007]

4. THAT.. PICTURE.. STINKS

[wickerwoman]

6. It looks like it was taken in some teenager's garage...

quite apart from being stupid and offensive.

[ohheckyeah]

8. Really.

Not only was the subject matter offensive the photos were just poorly taken as well.

[boppers]

5. Women don't get bruises. They don't fart or shit either.

Hint: If a person is linking a bruised female human with domestic violence, that says something about how that person thinks women should interact with society.

I know lots of bruised women. They work for their bruises, and wear them as badges of experience.

[Raine]

11. What kind of "work" does a woman do that she gets

a black eye? Even for a man how would he get a black eye except be being hit, for both sexes it would involve being hit by someone.

[boppers]

19. Steelwork. Plumbling, Framing houses.

Any kind of work that involves mass that can fuck you up.

[uppityperson]

53. How often does a woman with a bruised eye gotten it by working@ those jobs?

Bruises on arms, legs, yes, but how often a black eye like that?

[pipi_k]

36. Oh, I got hit lots of times...

when I worked with developmentally disabled people in a community residence. The lower functioning ones, I mean...they couldn't speak so they acted out a lot. Hit, bit, slapped, punched, and one time I missed being seriously injured by a vacuum cleaner that was thrown at me.

[csziggy]

38. Working with horses

The only black eyes I ever had were from horses. Once, one struck me just above the left eye and drug her hoof down my face. I had two black eyes, was bleeding from the nose, split lips, a big goose egg at the point the hoof struck. I was also unconscious for several minutes.

The other one was when a horse accidentally banged her head into the edge of my eye socket. The bone was broken and I had a black eye that extended halfway down my cheek. There was so much bleeding around the eye the pressure made me temporarily blind in that eye.

I've never been the victim of domestic violence, but because of those incidents and other accidents with horses, my doctor was concerned that I was. He took me aside (away from my husband) and had a long talk with me to make sure that I was not a victim. I really appreciated his concern.

[RebelOne]

43. Yep, me too.

When I owned horses years ago, I had been stepped on, bitten and thrown and had to go to the hospital once. But fortunately, I have never been a victim of domestic violence.

[tblue37]

17. The bruised eye in the pictures is obviously intended to look as though

she was punched in the face. It is NOT the sort of bruise one gets by working or playing hard. Furthermore, in one picture a male hand holds an iron, the cord of which is wrapped around both of her wrists, as though she has been bound.

Did you even look at the pictures? There is no question at all that thesepictures are meant to invoke domestic violence.

[boppers]

20. If you play hard in a linen facility, you will get hurt.

Where you might see abuse, I see:
1) A woman who can take some knocks while having fun.
2) Somebody abused.

I don't think we should shut down roller derby because "women might be hurt".

I am amused at the idea of determining gender via hands. I believe there's a Seinfeld episode for that mental error.

[Maine-ah]

26. I've got some great bruises from roller derby.

and I do wear them as a badge of honor.

As to the pics in the OP, I think it is representative of abuse. I happily post pics of my battle wounds. Women who are abused hide them. I don't like what these pics represent, it is, to me, the glorification of abuse. Freedom of speech is where I assume this falls under.

one of my derby bruises:

[boppers]

46. Nice hit. Hope it healed well.

As far as representing abuse, and hiding abuse, the pics aren't hiding, they're displaying, so are you of the mindset that they are... displaying the hidden?

Put another way, if they're not hiding something, does that indicate abuse? I'm not sure I follow.

[wickerwoman]

57. Yes,

Clearly she was "playing hard" while ironing shirts and "whoopsie daisie" fell on the board collapsing it, blackened her eye and pulling on her hair, as you do.

Nope, nothing intended to invoke domestic violence here. Just a gal having a great time with her chores.

[boppers]

65. No defensive bruises, crap ironing board, pinup pose, obvious makeup job.

If it's intended to invoke thoughts about domestic violence, it's a huge fail on me.





That's what it looks like in real life. Not quite the same thing, is it?

[madmom]

29. Generally if a woman ( or even a man) gets bruised from working hard or

playing hard, they have many bruises, some big, some small. I single black eye looks like an intentional "hit".

[boppers]

51. Domestic abuse isn't limited to black eyes.

Nor should a black eye be an automatic indicator.

[uppityperson]

54. Of course DV isn't limited to black eyes, but that is what is on the OP so we are talking about it.

Your attempt to minimize this is rather appalling.

[boppers]

66. "minimize"? No.

This looks nothing like actual DV.

Go to a women's shelter. Volunteer for a day.

This looks like makeup meant to be cute. Trivializing real DV to the level of "oh, a woman with dark eye makeup must be abused" is ugly to me.

[uppityperson]

68. Been there, done that. Both as a volunteer and as a dv victim, thank you very much.

If you don't see this as being made up to look you she was punched in the eye, I cannot help you.

"oh, a woman with dark eye makeup"? Good grief.

[boppers]

70. .

[uppityperson]

73. thank you for your continuing empathy towards DV victims. Appreciate your thoughtfulness

[madmom]

60. Didn't say it was. What I said was if someone was bruised from working/playing hard they usually

have more than one bruise, be it a black eye or something else.

[kdmorris]

33. The first picture has her hands tied with the iron cord

And a man's hand holding the iron. The pictures are very much supposedly to look like Ken bruised Barbie.

One wonders why you defend these pictures.

[JanMichael]

37. I'm guessing that B isn't the sharpest pencil in school. nt.

[boppers]

47. Ah yes, I couldn't possibly know anything about art, abuse, or fashion.

Here's a funny little gut-check I perform whenever I think somebody is less intelligent, or less informed, than myself...

I ask myself: "Hey, could they possibly know vastly more about the topic than I do, and my ideas are simplistic and facile in comparison?"

It (the check) keeps Dunning-Kruger at bay.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

[uppityperson]

55. Must've gotten tangled in the cord while checking the plumbing under the sink

Since plumbers get bruises like this, according to some.

[kdmorris]

58. Oh, yeah, that's probably it

I mean... look how she's smiling through the pain. :sarcasm:

[Gormy Cuss]

69. Hint: a black eye is not usually from "work(ing) for their bruises"

unless they're pugilists or a few other narrowly defined arenas where a poke in the eye is expected.

[boppers]

71. I work in IT. We don't get much in the way of bruising.

However, I play with folks who work in construction, in animal work, and service industry, and who play rough. (By service industry, I mean bars. And by bars, I mean the kind of places where a black eye is just another occurrence, along with bruised arms, legs, and the occasional laceration.)

One subgroup of my friends spends at least a day a week trying to beat each other up with sticks, for fun (SCA). Another subgroup doesn't use sticks, but they do it on wheels (derby). It's consensual fighting. Lots of bruising, occasional black eye, popped rib, etc. Then there's the subgroup that works with large animals and get kicked, scratched, butted, etc.

So, I guess what I take away from your post (and pondering my own experiences, and responses to the OP and sub-threads) is that a black eye might have a huge variation of reactions, and responses, in context, depending on the experiences of the observer, and what is known about the observed.

[Gormy Cuss]

72. Right, and consensual fighting is not the context of these photos..

That's why you've been getting so muck flak in this thread. In context, that black eye is directly tied to images of domesticity of the 1950s variety. Sporting a black eye while dressed as Mrs. Cleaver connotes something very different from sporting a black eye while wearing boxing silks, for example.

[tblue37]

7. Her wrists are also bound by the cord of the electric iron! Disgusting. nt

[provis99]

9. he got attention for his amateurish photos.

That's what he wanted.

[eShirl]

10. He sounds like a derivative poseur to me...

among whatever else.

OK, after actually looking at the photos in the article... I'm seeing not subjugation, but refusal to be subjugated.

[blogslut]

12. I suppose

However, I'm kind of in love with this pose:

[reggie the dog]

14. try and give my daughter a black eye like that and you will

meet my glock, just sayin

[hobbit709]

25. Try that with a friend of mine and you'd meet HER glock.

Her daddy was Army Pistol champ.

[rationalcalgarian]

Really?

A pornslut with a black eye doing a cumshot with an iron.

I don't get it. But modern art was never my forte. Perhaps it is meant to represent the plight of panda bears under the oppressive Chinese regime brought about by the international economic pressures of the IMF.
Or maybe it's just stupid.

[Arkansas Granny]

22. I think your description of that photo is spot on.

[rationalcalgarian]

15. Really?

A pornslut with a black eye doing a cumshot with an iron.

I don't get it. But modern art was never my forte. Perhaps it is meant to represent the plight of panda bears under the oppressive Chinese regime brought about by the international economic pressures of the IMF.
Or maybe it's just stupid.

[undergroundpanther]

16. These people making fashion shots

are told by the rich assholes funding them to reinforce traditional gender roles.Where women knew their place... depict the women like victims,make them look weak,starved, bound,ditzy,raped,addicted,dominated,dying, bearing her body like a vulnerable whore,and keep them looking childlike.Let no woman into fashion dare think she can be strong in this culture where men are men and women are nothing..to get a man a woman must make herself beautiful,and suffer to be beautiful.
Make the standard of beauty impossible to attain and the guys can get off watching the ladies suffer,it's so hilarious that anorexia..so sexy when a woman looks like a twelve year old.

Those rich old pigs promoting such shit as what fashion photographers are promoting are frightened of strong women without a male to subdue her ,because strong women would kick the ass for demeaning women like they do in fashion.There's so much misogyny in the fashion industry it's disgusting.

[Skidmore]

39. Those "rich assholes" derive pleasure

from stepping on or abusing others.

The whole fashion industry also is built on abuse. Abuse of women who are pushed into eating disorders either trying or failing to achieve the unrealistic boyish thinness pushed out there as an ideal. Abuse of models who are expected to be walking clothes hangers. Abuse of the workers who make the clothing. Abuse of the consumer in removing quality from products while continuing peddle expensive designer crap in all levels of retail.

[undergroundpanther]

18. Women have been seen as ghastly for so long

they internalize it..in that awful ad depicting domestic abuse or this awful ad




http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/retrofit-this-vintage-ad-says-a-little-lysol-douche-will-take-care-of-all-your-wink-wink-problems-236877/

[tblue37]

64. The whole idea behind douching and feminine hygiene sprays is

that women are "filthy" inside and out and can never be clean enough.

That ad is beyond disgusting.

[fasttense]

21. And the dress she is wearing is ugly too.

What a stupid advertising idea. Maybe if the dress were on a person who was not so seriously injured it would look better. But from now on, every time I see that dress, I'm going to think of injuries, pain and suffering. I would certainly never, ever buy a dress that would make me think of pain and suffering.

[a la izquierda]

23. Ugh, gag.

I hate the fashion industry. Way to repress women and ensure generations of women feel absolutely disgusted with themselves.

[Motown_Johnny]

24. IMHO That just made a very attractive young woman very unattractive

compare the pics at that link to pics where she does not appear to have been beaten. No contest for me.

[Kalidurga]

27. "Even Barbie gets bruises,"

great now I am picturing Ken in a tank top drinking a six pack and working up a rage so he can beat Barbie.

[Aerows]

28. I brought this up not long ago

Someone was complaining about how skinny the models were, but I was far more horrified that they had bruises and looked like they'd been assaulted. Someone else pointed out that maybe I didn't like it just because I wasn't the proper audience. My main question was what audience is attracted to women who look like they've been beaten senseless, and what does it say about that audience? I'd like to think I'm pretty open-minded (in fact, I know I am, more than most), but I don't get the thrill of beaten up women.

[zoosareprisons]

30. You might like this YouTube video called 'Poses.'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPEcdcmnAA0

[elehhhhna]

34. it IS time to knock "Barbie" in her frikkin eye

teen girls are insane these days with the pursuit of perfection (which to their very literal minds = characateurs and unattainable freaky looks and dimensions). Folks, it's bad.

[Odin2005]

40. That is sick. The increasing misogyny among my 20-something peers is horrific.

The horrible notion of the "overbearing hysterical woman" is coming back. :grr:

[seabeyond]

41. i am glad you recognize, acknowledge, speak out. i dont get why people refuse to see it

it is so clear. it is a problem.

thanks always odin

[AngryOldDem]

42. Sadly, this isn't new.

A few seasons back on America's Next Top Model the challenge was to look pretty after dying a violent death at the hands of another, jealous model. One I remember was a broken neck.

As long as the industry promotes destructive behavior, and the people involved still get paid handsomely for participating, this garbage will continue.

[graywarrior]

50. Offensive as hell.

[GliderGuider]

52. Making bruises into a fashion accessory is not cool. On the other hand...

On a deeper level this is anything but a fashion shoot. Her attitude in the last three pics is not that of a victim. There's a real sense of "Fuck you" in her expressions and poses.

A few years ago I knew a serious social documentary photog who was asked by a young woman to take pictures of her cutting herself. He did a whole shoot of the process. The pics were extremely graphic, very direct and really uncomfortable to look at. With her permission he put them out where people could see them, and invited commentary. The consensus was that he should have turned her request down, on the premise that he was enabling her behaviour. After talking with both the photog and the woman I disagreed with that sentiment. I didn't (and still don't) think he enabled her at all. I felt the pics were a valuable entry point into a hidden, taboo yet extremely prevalent and very serious shadow world that many young women inhabit. The pics were conversation starters, and both the photog and the subject intended them as such.

So, what conversations might these pictures start, down below the knee-jerk level? Is there some social value in this? I think there is. What are the possible reactions a young abused wife might have on seeing this? Might the instant shudder of self-recognition be valuable for some people, sometimes? They might even communicate the deeper message of "You don't have to take this, you're worth more than this" to someone who is ready to free themselves from a cycle of violence.

As a photographer, that's what I see in the pictures.

Yes they're amateurish and artistically shallow. But that doesn't mean they're not trying to say something valuable.

[Quantess]

56. They thank you for drawing attention to them. Seriously.

Even better if it makes you think of products to buy!!

That is what advertising is about.

[GliderGuider]

59. I disagree. I think this shoot may be very valuable for some people who are at risk.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1873036&mesg_id=1875897

I invite you look at the photos more carefully and dispassionately, and to think about this a little deeper.

[Tom Ripley]

61. "She...uh...uh...ran into a door at Helmut Newton's house!"

[GliderGuider]

62. :-) I love it!

:thumbsup:

[Tom Ripley]

63. Thanks!

:)

[Iggo]

67. And here's your answer:

"Only a few weeks ago, we were talking about a Salon ad with a photo of a bruised model."

It's all about buzz, baby.