Women’s clothing brand Suistudio USA has a series of ads that reverse common gender roles.
The “Not Dressing Men” campaign shows women clothed and looking at the camera, while male models are naked and don’t have faces.
The campaign is a statement about how women are often presented as disembodied sex objects in clothing ads.
“There is nothing wrong with sex, the naked human body, and the inclusion of that in a campaign. Sex is a big part of fashion,” Suistudio USA vice president Kristina Barricelli told UpWorthy. “The problem is that in recent history, we haven’t seen a naked man objectified in the background. How strange! Why not?”
Never Miss a Beat
Subscribe to our newsletter to stay ahead of the latest LGBTQ+ political news and insights.
Of course, some people on social media just don’t get it. “I don’t like thins thing. Very sexist,” one person commented on Instagram.
Another person wrote, apparently unironically, “I’m sure if the roles were reversed and this was published there would be a backlash from females saying that they are being sexualised, objectified, abused and so on. But somehow it is ok to do the said things to males, I mean we are strong, we can take shit and keep quiet. I mean we have no feelings and we can’t be hurt. Hypocrites.”
That just proves the point. The way men are portrayed in these ads is terrible, and that’s why these folks are freaking out.
But in so many other ads, women are shown as naked sex objects, and these people don’t care because it’s so normal to them.
That’s how privilege works – not only are men generally portrayed as cool and powerful in ads while women are sex objects, people are taught to empathize more with men so they freak out if anyone questions this power dynamic.
It’s a self-reinforcing system.
