American Able.

There are so many things that come to mind when the company American Apparel is mentioned. Butt contests, expensive clothes, and not to mention the company's infamous CEO, Dov Charney, who has been the subject of multiple sexual harassment charges. Another staple that usually comes to mind is American Apparel's advertisements. They usually feature scantily clad women in provocative poses advertising.. well, actually, I usually don't know what product they're advertising. Am I supposed to be checking out this girl's booty or the tiny thong that's tucked away in there?

Although the website claims that models are "employees and friends from around the world - not models", this is a statement that blatantly isn't true. Many of American Apparel's "real people" are both porn stars and real models that are represented by agencies. Porn stars such as Lauren Phoenix, Sasha Grey, and Faye Reagan have all appeared in multiple American Apparel advertisements. With most models being over 5'10", thin, and seemingly flawless, many people would agree that, like most advertising today, their models don't exactly represent "real people".

As Julia Caron, blogger from Worn Fashion Journal writes, "In my reality, all kinds of people are sexy and sexual: People who identify as queer, as disabled, as trans, as fat, and generally, as awesome. But in this world of American Apparel and various other "real beauty" ad campaigns making claims of representing the "average woman", I never see myself or the kinds of people I know."

In a spoof series called “American Able”, photographer Holly Norris has challenged American Apparel’s young, slim, and overtly sexual “real people” advertisements. “American Able” features Jes Sachse, a disabled woman, in advertisements almost identical to those of American Apparel’s. On her website Norris writes she has chosen American Apparel because, “Their campaigns are highly sexualized and feature women who are generally thin, and who appear to be able-bodied. Women with disabilities go unrepresented, not only in American Apparel advertising, but also in most of popular culture.”


Her choice of model has a great significance as well. Norris goes on to say, “Rarely, if ever, are women with disabilities portrayed in anything other than an asexual manner, for ‘disabled’ bodies are largely perceived as ‘undesirable.’ In a society where sexuality is created and performed over and over within popular culture, the invisibility of women with disabilities in many ways denies them the right to sexuality, particularly within a public context.”


I really love what Norris has done through this spoof. Not only are the photos beautiful but the message Norris and Jes send is a great one. This spoof of American Apparel’s advertisements allows us to look at the ways the advertising industry both objectively and selectively portrays women. It is not only a critique on the industry but also provides an alternative for advertising as well.

The complete series is available at Holly Norris’ website. The actual exhibit is also available for viewing in Toronto, Canada. It will also be shown on over 270 digital screens in 50 Toronto Transit Commission stations on May 6, 11, 22 and 31.

Enough pixelated boobs! (Sexism in video games)

It's pretty common knowledge that the world of video games is a very male-dominated one. I'm into video games myself, but I'm far from being an "extreme gamer". I'd rather pick up a fun and cute Nintendo game then anything overly violent and serious on Playstation or XBox. Harvest Moon, Super Mario Bros., Sonic- those are my kinds of games. But when you step away from the innocent area of gaming and jump into the more serious side of it, you are bound to see some sexism.

I'll start off by saying that when it comes to the design of characters in video games, I think there is sexism to be found with both genders. The majority of male characters in video games are designed overly masculine with huge muscles, while the majority of female characters in video games are designed overly feminine with huge...well...boobs. But the sexism is quite obviously worse for the female characters. Female characters in video games are constantly sexualized and objectified. They are usually shown as damsels in distress who need the big strong male main characters to come and save them (I'm looking at you, Princess Peach), or if on the off chance the main character in the video game is a woman kicking ass, you better believe she will have to look overly-sexualized while doing it (hello, Lara Croft)! I'm talking barely-there clothing with big double-D pixelated breasts bouncing up and down, of course.

But the scary part is that the objectification and sexualization of women in video games isn't even the worst of it. It's the rape and violence against women in video games that really scares me. In Grand Theft Auto you can go to a local strip club, pay for a lap dance, have sex with the stripper, and then kill her after your done with her! Awesome (please note the sarcasm). And then there are rape video games which are surprisingly and sickeningly very popular online and actually have a cult following. One of the most well-known rape video games is RapeLay, which was released in Japan back in 2006, but just recently got a lot of media attention. I have a hard time even writing about this video game because it grosses me out and pisses me off so much. Here's the description of the game off of Wikipedia:

"The player can choose from a variety of sexual positions, and controls the action by making movements with the mouse or by scrolling the mouse wheel. It features a realistic sexual simulator which allows the player to grope and undress the characters on a crowded train. Later, the player may have forced intercourse with all three women at his leisure."

And that's not even the worst parts of the description of the game, if you'd like to read it all you can do so here. Now let me make it clear to everyone that I don't believe that just because you may play a video game with killing or raping in it you are automatically going to want to go out and do those things in the real world, not at all. But I do feel that if you continuously play video games with those themes in them you can possibly become desensitized to it. And that scares me, because for the most part people are aware that murder is wrong, but for some reason many people still don't see rape as wrong or as serious of a crime as it is.

And what makes RapeLay and other games like it worse then the typical shooting games to me is the context. Sure in Halo you shoot and kill people, but that's not the main purpose of the game, there is a whole storyline and objective behind it. But with games like RapeLay, raping women and young girls is the sole purpose of the game. And it's a realistic sexual simulator, so you're not just raping these women, but you're pretty much torturing them in detail- extra points for you if they cry or scream! Disgusting. I'm not a fan of censorship, so I personally don't believe that this game being available is the problem and that censoring it would then be the solution. I think that the problem lies with people wanting to play it, because if there wasn't anybody wanting to play it, then these kinds of games wouldn't continue to be made.

But don't fear female feminist gamers, on the brighter side, there are also a handful of video games that feature awesome intelligent and strong female characters lacking any sexism. For example- Jade from Beyond Good & Evil, Alyx Vance from Half-Life 2, and Samus Aran from Metroid, just to name a few.