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American Apparel accused of encouraging 'Lolita fantasies'

By FashionUnited

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Fashion

Los-Angeles based apparel label American Apparel has made it was back into the media spotlights once more, after publishing its new 'back to school' campaign which is said to have included a photograph of a young model in a risqué pose designed to promote the brand's range of mini skirts.

Earlier this week American Apparel uploaded some images from its new campaign on its UK Instagram account and one particular image has created an online outrage on social media platforms. In its back to school campaign, which American Apparel named 'School Days,' young female models are seen wearing mini-skirts and crop tops, with the tag line reading: “Your first assignment is to dress appropriately.”

"American Apparel 'back to school' skirts fuel Lolita fantasies

However one image depicted a model wearing a shirt plaid skirt, bent over a car and showing a hint of her underwear and cropped to put all attention on her behind, raising cries of concern across the globe. Emilie Lawrence, a blogger at anygirlfriday.com, was one of the first visitors to notice the image and shared it on Twitter, tweeting: “American Apparel – their 'back to school' skirts [are] fueling Lolita fantasies and rampant sexism a plenty.”

Other people shared her concerns and outrage at the fashion retailer for sexualizing under-age school girls to sell its products. “Stop buying American Apparel products, stop supporting sexism and sexual violence,” wrote Milla Edberg, on the retailer's Facebook page.“Your 'back to school' ad campaign is disgusting,” added Natalie Yassin. The offending image, which has been label as “dangerous misogyny” and “underage porn” has been removed since then from the retailer's Instagram, but continues to be shared online via other platforms.

American Apparel has a long history of using controversial campaigns images and has been repeatedly accused of sexually objectify women in a number of its photographs. Last March, American Apparel posted a similar image, which features a young women bending over in a short skirt, whilst revealing the outline of her underwear.

Another ad which depicted a female model wearing just a white sweater and nothing else was said to be “gratuitous” by the Advertising Standards Agency, who told the retailer to make sure “their future advertising contained nothing that was likely to cause serious or widespread offence.” American Apparel also made headlines when they posted an ad with a female employees who was topless and had the words “Made in Bangladesh” written across her chest.

American Apparel "peddling damaging ideas΅ in its advertorial campaigns

“The way in which American Apparel objectify and sexualise female bodies is damaging and rooted in patriarchal notions about a woman’s worth,” warned Lawrence to i100. “Adverts like this reduce women down to little more than body parts to be claimed, and reinforce idea that our primary purpose is to be appealing to men.” She later tweeted that women “need to know that their worth is not intrinsically linked to their appearance/ appeal to men. American Apparel is peddling damaging ideas.”

Fashion has long been one of the many industries to use controversial themes to promote and draw attention to itself. Designers, brands and photographer alike have challenged social taboos throughout the years in different visual forms. For example, the public outrage against American Apparel follows on the heels of news that Indian photographer Raj Shetye used the fatal gang-rape of 23 year old physiotherapy student from December 2012, as inspiration for a high end fashion shoot. He argued that the shoot was “in no way meant to glamorize the act, which was very bad, it's just a way of throwing light on it.”

American Apparel "far from the worst offender" when it comes to sexualizing young woman

Tim Teeman, author and journalist at the DailyBeast, claims that American Apparel sexualisation of young women is not the issue at hand, but the “the real problem is a society insisting its youth grow up too soon.” He argues that American Apparel is “far from the worst offender. As a culture, sexuality and youth are played out in a mild and extreme contexts in other fashion campaigns, television and movies.” Teeman lists a host of more worrying examples of over-sexualizing young women, such as then 11 year old model Thylane Blondeau being showcased in French Vogue in a series of revealing dresses.

According to Teeman, the American Apparel advertisements reflect today's culture which seems to want both ends of the spectrum from its youth, to both remain pure and innocent and yet to also be all knowing, sexually submissive and vulnerable at the same time. He believes that the reason the advertisements are seen as offensive is because they "dramatize, brazenly, the sex-drenched time we live in." Teeman believes that the images shine a spotlight on the confusion which exists in society and has led to many people castigating American Apparels as the villains.

“American Apparel is a useful conduit for our distaste, but the real offense is socially pervasive: our culture—we—have perverted the notion of childhood. These images of schoolgirl skirts and peekaboo buttock outlines are just the most open, unapologetic manifestation of that.”

Images: American Apparel School Days campaign

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