Boing Boing And Ralph Lauren Clash Over Image Of Emaciated Model

There's a great blogosphere-battle brewing between website Boing Boing and clothier Ralph Lauren over an advertisement featuring a Ralph Lauren-clad woman photoshopped to impossible thinness.

The gauntlet was thrown when a Boing Boing blogger reproduced the ad with this succinct critique: "Dude, her head's bigger than her pelvis."

Instead of addressing this disturbing, and accurate criticism, Ralph Lauren responded by accusing Boing Boing of copyright infringement for reprinting the ad. Even though, As Boing Boing points out, this is "classic fair use: a reproduction 'for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting.'"

Happily, Boing Boing will not be cowed by Ralph Lauren's threat, as co-editor Cory Doctorow makes clear:

So, instead of responding to their legal threat by suppressing our criticism of their marketing images, we're gonna mock them. Hence this post.

Other strategies for battling Ralph Lauren Doctorow plans to employ include: reproducing the ad with the original criticism, publishing Ralph Lauren's legal threats and offering "nourishing soup and sandwiches to [their] models."

Comments

[wolfstarpdx]

The use of Photoshop and other image-manipulation software to distort and "correct" fashion photography is nothing new, and quite widespread. Adbusters magazine had a great article about it, in an issue several years back. Here's a link to another article of their's: https://www.adbusters.org/campaigns/actions/fashion-revolution.html

[bhavishyap]

Having suffered a severe body image problem since I was a teenager, I worry that the numbers presented about this model's height and weight will be triggers in themselves. Probably right now there are postings all over the Pro Ana/MIA sites where young girls are saying, "Ew, anyone over 120 pounds is sooo fat." That's sick.

[nancyt9]

It's not a surprise. Ralph Lauren should be ashamed I don't care what the requirements are to be a perfect model, this is disgusting. The body doesn't even look human she is so disfigured. There was no reason for them to go all out and give her this dying of starvation look. It is sad that the fashion industry only seeks these skinny women. I'm skinny as well but I don't think a voluminous woman is any less attractive than me. Being realistic who really looks that small. These kinds of ads are the reasons models have eating disorders, these are the examples they feel they need to compete against. Unfortunately in our time being this thin will actually give you wealth, so yes lets all just starve ourselves and get rich. Ridiculous.

[seattle music]

Honey I Shrunk The Pelvis !!!

[MasterOfOne]

Really, Ralph? This isn't much of an apology. Karl Lagerfeld should consider a little contrition, too:

http://thebrowntweedsociety.com/2009/10/13/ralph-lauren-%E2%80%9Capologizes%E2%80%9D-karl-lagerfeld-damns-torpedoes-regarding-skinny-models/

[Justtellthetruth]

Bravo BOING BOING.

[cyranorox]

Thinness= wealth. It both is, and stands for, a form of riches. And, as Wallis Windsor once said, you cannot be too rich or too thin. Or can you?

[pjburns11]

The only gauntlet being thrown down is the waif in that photo.

The models get skinnier as the masses get fatter. What is that about?

[xsm941f]

Let's see. Someone had to have made the decision that this is good to go before it was published. How anyone could have ok'd this is beyond me.

[AnimalFarm1984]

Yukes. Her body is so out of proportion. It seems like Ralph Lauren got the idea from portrait of aliens with gaint heads and tick like bodies.

[svnjewels]

Ewwww, who in their right mind would find that remotely attractive? My arms are bigger then her legs! GROSS!

[td439sf]

she's hot. i'd def tag that if she supersized her rack a little

[thrugreeneyez]

Please don't refer to women as something to "tag". This is very offensive to women. Women are not mere sex objects for you to "tag". You sound like a huge jerk when you talk like that, and you also sound uneducated.

[Beegood]

Something tells me you don't do alot of "tagging". I am sorry that this is what you find attractive, as it isn't human, that must be very fustrating for you.

[zapper502]

isnt human???? you may wish to take that statement back

[jewellthief]

say what you will, in this society, being skinny and/or almost anorexic is celebrated on the runways, while folx critique Serena Williams on the cover of ESPN as being 'too manly'.... wow, I guess curves on a woman are considered 'too manly'.....

[zapper502]

maybe its the 16 inch biceps

[Patrick Dacre]

Simplest thing. Just don't buy the product. Usually works quite well.

And for a more balanced view on women and men in society, we invite you to explore this site.

http://www.sophiasirius.net

Patrick

[RickMarin]

Once again, gay men pretty much run the fashion industry, and their idea of beauty is reflected by how they portray women, as skinny teenage boys, which reveals their true secret fantasy, which they're much better at keeping hidden than your average pedophile.
...and this is not an attack on the gay community in any way (whom I embrace), just a psycho-analysis, if you will.

[notontask]

Conflating gay desire with pedophilia is an attach on the gay community, and also ignorant. And for why your "psychoanalysis" is seriously reductive, see my other comments on this subject.

[notontask]

Make that "attack" not "attach"

[MrsJackson]

I read something like that in discussing Eddie Murphy and his choice of leading leadies. Scary implications....

[Teadye]

I think it's gone from gay pedophilia to necrophilia, personally. That's not to say all gay men are pedophiles, but some guys *do* have a preference for the beautiful boys. I, too, think that gay designers influenced the "no boobs, no curves" aspect of fashion. If you take models from a certain era, they do in fact look like sexy boys.... they just do. These days they look like corpses and junkies. Not sure what the motivation is tho...