women zero-in on the models- not the fashion

In Diana Crane's "Gender and Hegemony in Fashion Magazines: Women's Interpretations of Fashion Photographs," a study was conducted in which women responded to photos from fashion magazines. Interestingly, the women spent more time discussing the appearances of the models or their facial expressions and hardly took the actual fashion they were modeling into consideration. For the most part, the women were concerned with whether or not they could relate to the woman portrayed in the photo. If she was very tall, extremely skinny, and unhappy looking (for example) the women said they disliked the photo and could not relate to someone like that. The African Amercan women participating in the study were particularly turned off by certain models and fashions, saying that the fashion industry was targeting white women, and the styles and the models were not representative of the body-types of African American women. Based on comments made by the women, they did not take fashion magazines seriously- they did not base their own sense of fashion off of them, they found the images unrealistic, and as one woman said: "...It's not really a woman's point of view. It's what a woman thinks a man wants to see or something like that." Facial expressions and personalities of the models were important to the women; they admired photos that looked "like me", or if the model looked happy or confident. All the women came to the same conclusion when they saw photos of ambiguous-looking women (model with a manly-body type in a dress; model wearing a sloppy combination of men's clothing; etc)-- they hated it.

This is a photo from vogue that I found on google images- so I'm not sure what issue this would have been in- but the model's position, face, and porcelin skin really caught my attention. Her position lying on the bed is very submissive and suggestive- her eyes are barely open but looking at the camera and her lips are parted. Between her skin and her makeup, the model resembles a doll, suggesting a child-like image. I think the women in the study would see this photo and say that the model looks helpless and sexualized- even though the dress she is wearing is not revealing! Her body is mostly covered, but her attitude and body language are all it take to portray her as a sexual object.