Analysis
Lindsey West

This advertisement appeared in the November 2003 issue of Elle magazine. Elle is a high-end women's fashion magazine targeting a young female demographic. When I searched for this company on the search engine "Google," the first match found was The "gallery of offenders" on a feminist website at http://www.about-face.org/goo/archive/repeat/francescobiasa/as the company is also on their list of "repeat offenders" and advertisements from previous campaigns are also featured on http://academic.reed.edu/anthro/faculty/mia/sexist.html in the sexism in advertising exhibits; advertisements from this company's "ELLE" campaign from August of 2001 ran in two exhibits, "Gratuitous Female Skin" and, "Gendered Violence". This company sells luxury handbags that are accessible to only a small segment of the female population. The official Biasa website www.biasia.com says the companies mission is to combine Italian artistry with high technology. A Japanese female photographer, Karina Taira who worked directly for the company shot this advertisement campaign. The image of the inscribed nude accompanies every handbag Biasa is selling this season and all the different series of handbags have different text on the nude model's bodies. All of the text refers to the body as commodities. The images acknowledge that it takes time, work, and money to have a body resembling the model's. Implicit in this is the fact that most women do not have the time to devote so much energy to sculpting their frames. The nude thin body is constructed as a status symbol that corresponds to the luxury handbag.

In this image the camera is looking at the model straight-on and she looks directly into the camera, there is no sense of voyeurism in this image, on the contrary the model is very much on display, she is deliberately posed, against a backdrop and perched on some kind of pedestal/block that matches and almost disappears into the blank gray backdrop. The image seems to be one of a woman posed like a mannequin in a store window. The view is straight on and there is nothing in the frame to distract from the appearance of the product and the model that holds it. In this image the subjects are the handbag being displayed and the model holding it. The model is there to explain the significance of the product with her body and arrest the reader's attention with her emaciated nudity. The model is completely naked and has text written across strategic areas. On her chest across where her breasts should be is written "THIS IS NOT JUST ANY OLD LEATHER OUTFIT" This text is mostly legible though parts of it are obscured by the model's hand and forearm that reach across her chest to hold the strap of the bag. She sits at an angle to the camera with her legs bent and one thigh drawn up to cover her pelvis and lower abdomen, on this thigh is written, "I BOUGHT THIS TAYLORâ?¦IN FLORENCE", part of the text obscured by the product. The next section of the text is written in sections that are perpendicular to each other so it is possible to construct two different phrases, "JUST LIKE MY SECOND SKIN" and "I LOVE SKIN". Then on the bottom of her thigh is the phrase, "TO PUT IT ON" followed by some writing obscured by the curve of her leg. On her back thigh is written, "THAT WILL ALWAâ?¦ITING FOR Mâ?¦" I think the complete obscured phrase is "THAT WILL ALWAYS BE WAITING FOR ME" the text is obscured by the way her leg is bent. The fact that the text is not completely legible makes the reader engage with it and complete it for themselves.

The writing on the models body can be interpreted on a number of levels, It can refer to the leather handbag she is holding and endow it with a significant, personal history, it could refer to an imaginary leather outfit, or it could refer to the model's flesh. If one reads it as referring to the skin and flesh of the model the text explicitly refers to the construction of the thin, toned female form as a purchased commodity. The skin is an outfit with a history, purchased and worn to indicate the social position of the wearer. This ad seems to embody Susan Bordo's idea of "postmodern plasticity" in it's portrayal of the rail-thin female form as a commodity that can be obtained and indicates status like an expensive Italian handbag (Bordo 1997) The advertisement equates the product with the desirable attribute of thinness.

Yet, this advertisement is not erotic. The model resembles a mannequin or a statue; any sexual parts of her body are either strategically covered or airbrushed out of the frame. The most notable example of this is her lack of visible breasts or nipples. The lack of breasts can be accounted for by her thinness but the nipples are just missing. This model is not an object of lust but rather a cultural ideal, the thin perfectly pulled together woman with the stunning purse. The desire that she evokes is not sexual but material, the reader desires to emulate her, to acquire the handbag and the sophisticated, poised way of life that it represents. Part of that lifestyle is a very studied thinness born of personal trainers, surgical alterations, and careful eating. The image this advertisement exalts requires work and considerable investments of time and money to acquire and maintain and is therefore only within the grasp of a small, elite group of wealthy women.

Works cited/ Sources

http://www.about-face.org/goo/archive/repeat/francescobiasa/as 11/13/03

http://academic.reed.edu/anthro/faculty/mia/sexist.html 11/13/03

www.biasia.com 11/13/03

ELLE Magazine November 2003

Bordo, Susan. "Material Girl: The Effacements of Postmodern Culture" in The Gender Sexuality Reader Eds. Roger Lancaster & Michaela di. Leonardo. Routledge NY 1997.