Photoshoots and Feminism: The Devil is in the Details

[lierdumoa]

Okay, so am I the only one who found the Details photoshoot disturbing?

I read some fanfiction that made mention of the pictures and I wanted to see what the buzz was about, so I put "details adam lambert scans" into a google search. One of the first links that popped up was this:

Adam Lambert – Poses with Naked Woman on Details Magazine – NSFW ...

I think the wording in the link says it all. She has no name, no identity, and she's wearing no clothes. That's all we need to know about her.

Of course, I wasn't going make any assumptions. I tracked down the photos and took a good long look at them. Every picture in a magazine is designed to sell something. If I were to infer a message from these pictures, I would say they are trying to sell the idea that Adam Lambert, despite being gay, is still a strong suave bad ass manly man. He's got slicked back greaser hair and stubble dotting his rugged jawline and he's wearing a muscle tee. But of course, that's just the icing. So what's the real treat? What image are we using to illustrate Adam Lambert's towering masculinity?

That of him fondling a naked woman in a proprietary manner.

We've come so far! Oh, brave new world!

Now gay men can objectify women too!

The image of a naked woman entwined provocatively with a fully clothed man is disturbing in and of itself. And I know what you're thinking. Hey, wouldn't it be clever and ironic if we turned a misogynist cliche on its head and made the man gay? Look! He's crouched over a naked woman palming her breasts and her ass and he doesn't even want her! She's not really an object of desire at all!

She's just.

An object.

Now these photos have shown us that even a gay man can command power over a woman. In fact, he's even more powerful than a straight man would be, because she commands no power over him in return.

It's all very poetic, isn't it? Details named their article "Idol Worship." And history assures us there's no better way to worship an idol than by sacrificing a naked woman.



ETA: Full article with photos can be found here.

ETA2: Let me clarify. I don't think Adam is a woman hating misogynist now. I *know* he's not. I know because he's a singer, and in an interview when asked to name his musical idols, he named three men and seven women. I know because when his private accounts got hacked into, he automatically assumed the culprit was a man despite the majority of his fans being female. I know because of a million other throwaway comments he's made.

I'm less mad at him than I am disappointed that he gave in to peer pressure. He did the equivalent of getting drunk and laughing along with the rest of the football team at the lonely nerd, or more accurately, spray painting "SLUT" on some poor girl's locker as part of a hazing ritual to become one of the popular kids. I suspect he felt dirty when he did it, and I dearly hope he never does anything like this again.

Comments

[scalesandfins.livejournal.com]

She's just.

An Object.

Fuck, thank you so much for this post. That shoot was horrifying on many levels and you articulated one I hadn't been able to find words for. That woman looked like a mannequin. Jesus.

[niqaeli]

I hadn't looked at it, mostly because seeing it described left me no desire to risk the blood pressure spike that sounded probable.

Maybe when I have some extra spoons, I'll go look, so I can be enraged with a primary source. As of right now, I'm out.

Because -- really, what you said right here.

ETA: So, okay I've now looked at them. I've seen some of the other interpretations of it, and I don't even have an opinion at this point because it seriously took me five seconds to parse her into a human being and not just a blur of light on some of those photos.

[miznarrator.livejournal.com]

Horrific interpretation, but I think I have to agree with you.

/o\

[gelasius.livejournal.com]

Oh god, I think I might be a little sick. I mean really. Guy fondles expanse of anonymous female flesh and it's just "racy"? REALLY?

[quinn222.livejournal.com]

If you read the accompanying article it's Adam who is the object. The article is about how women want to have sex with him and fantasize about him even though they know he is gay. The photos as supposed to illustrate that. It's one of the reasons why the ones that will appear in print show him with his eyes closed and not looking at the camera while she looks right into the lens.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

It was one of those "hot yet disturbing" things for me. Artistically it was very sexy. On another level, I hated the idea of a Prop!Woman. Why couldn't they have used a sexy guy?

[thingswithwings.livejournal.com]

yes INDEED. Thank you for this. Really, what that photo shoot reveals to me is that the objectification of women, even (especially) by straight men, is NEVER about sex - it is always about power. The fact that a gay man can do it (too) just makes it clear that it was always an act of control, not an expression of desire.

[blacksquirrel.livejournal.com]

You're not the only one. There's even more skeeze in the context of how the pics were taken. Apparently they didn't tell Adam until the day that he would be posing with a naked woman and they plied him with champagne - but even more importantly, the model didn't know that she'd be posing naked until the photoshoot started. Overall, I'm a little sickened by how they were both manipulated into those photos.

And another thing that adds to her object-ness: She isn't a known person with a name and history and background. Part of hiring a model is that you purchase a blank body with no distinguishing characteristics apart from rigid conformity to (unrealistic) social body ideals.

[nothingbutgold.livejournal.com]

so i found this post five months later while looking for discussions on the details shoot, and i really really like it. thank you for having written it.