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Vice Magazine's Failed Attempt at a Female Authors Issue...
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There are no words, Alexa! It's all just so wildly offensive.
For the sake of argument- and I've asked this elsewhere- would it be as offensive if the photo shoot was about male writers? Hemingway, David Foster Wallace, etc.? Or is the context entirely different because its an article about "bitches be writin'"?
I don't feel that a magazine photo essay showing male writers would have even been a blip on radars. Which isn't to say the Vice photos shouldn't have been a big blip! Obviously when we think about the historical oppression and repression of women the Vice shoot takes on some pretty icky overtones (though, I'll admit I wasn't angered or otherwise strongly affected- art is subjective), and so in some ways it's "fair" to be angry and call out Vice, but as we swing the pendulum back towards the centre should we be concerned about going all the way past the middle ground of equality? Would it be okay to showcase male writers in the same fashion because of historical context? Is it a double standard that we should be allowing or even embracing?
I think I would have still found it tasteless if the suicide spread had been about male authors, but it wouldn't be to the same scale. The reasons this spread upset so many are numerous. To name a few: 1) It completely diminishes the literary accomplishments of these amazing women. The reader isn't presented with any positive information about the authors; there is no mention of Plath's incredible poetry or Woolf's groundbreaking A Room of One's Own. Instead we see them as sad creatures staring down an oven and wading into a river with pockets full of rocks. These individuals are reduced to an act of desperation that doesn't shed any light on who they were as writers, which is apparently what the issue was supposed to be about.
2) The way women look and the way they dress is already so overemphasized in society, and fashion spreads in particular are causing pain and suffering on countless women and girls. We are continually ambushed by the fashion industry - Buy this! Look like this! Starve yourself! - ultimately damaging self-esteem and reducing women to mere objects. For Vice to not only depict these authors in their lonely final moments, but do it as a way to give fashion advice reduces these women even further. Now they are not only individuals who are tastelessly portrayed in their final moments, they are also treated as mannequins. Sanmao is shown fastening a noose made of pantyhose around her neck, and a fashion credit is given for the brand of pantyhose. No no no. Just no.
3) Women and violence. I don't think I need to delve deeply into this as it should be as obvious as the point above, but women have a long history of being subjected to violence at the hands of men. Producing more imagery (I say more because violent imagery involving women is everywhere already) of these women inflicting violence on themselves does nothing to help the situation. The world does not need to add any additional fuel to the fire when it comes to male fantasies involving women and violence.
These are just a few of the reasons why I think depicting female authors in this way, as opposed to male authors, is particularly damaging. I'm not even going to touch on the ridiculous "Bitches be writing" article haha.
Very good points, well taken. It's pretty sad that either women or men could be boiled down to the way they died in order to sell clothes. Boo-urns.
That all being said, do you think it would even occur to a team of magazine editors/writers/bloggers/whatever to do a 'fashion' piece of this nature with male authors? I feel like connecting women with suicide/violence/fashion is more common, sadly, than connecting it with men. If they were to do a fashion spread with male authors what do you think it would look like? I expect it would be much more to do with glorifying their accomplishments than presenting them in the way they presented these women.
I think it might occur to a magazine staff to do, but I don't think it has the shock value or dirty thrill that a women's version did/does. Not to mention, I don't think suicide in writers is as strong a narrative for men as it is for women. Or maybe the female authors that have done it are more well known, aside from some very prominent men like Hemingway, HS Thompson and DF Wallace?I'm guessing the man's version of the "suicide fashion spread" would be a lot gorier and would play up the "crazy" lifestyle and "loose cannon" angle, something far more dramatic, as opposed to the sort of morose and sad pictures from Vice.
In the above link MS. Magazine addresses the ridiculously offensive 'fashion spread' featuring images of female writers who committed suicide, featured in Vice's Fiction Issue (which is apparently dedicated to the woman writer). The images have been pulled from the website (but are still available in the print copy) and replaced with a statement from VICE;
"“Last Words” is a fashion spread featuring models reenacting the suicides of female authors who tragically ended their own lives. It is part of our 2013 Fiction Issue, one that is entirely dedicated to female writers, photographers, illustrators, painters, and other contributors.
The fashion spreads in VICE magazine are always unconventional and approached with an art-editorial point-of-view rather than a typical fashion photo-editorial one. Our main goal is to create artful images, with the fashion message following, rather than leading.
“Last Words” was created in this tradition and focused on the demise of a set of writers whose lives we very much wish weren’t cut tragically short, especially at their own hands. We will no longer display “Last Words” on our website and apologize to anyone who was hurt or offended.
—VICE"
The photos, if you aren't angry enough already, are still available on the Jezebel website with an article about how tasteless the images are.
http://jezebel.com/vice-published-a-f...
Still available on the VICE website, however, is this ridiculous "list" of female authors under the unfortunate heading "Bitches Be Writing". It includes 7 female authors and a "writeup" (I use that word very loosely) which can only be described as infuriating. The comments indicate as much. Even more irritating than the 'article' is that is was actually written by a woman. *eye roll*
http://www.vice.com/read/bitches-be-w...
Bitches Be Writing: A History
1775–1817: Jane Austen
The first important modern writer with a vagina emerged out of nowhere, with an exaggerated, hyperbolic diary she called Pride and Prejudice, written when she was just 21 years old. As a result, universities all over the place now have feminist-literature departments. And no one really knows why, because Jane Austen’s biographical information is scarce and sketchy. All we can be certain of is that she had a pair of tits.
1797–1851: Mary Shelley
When Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus was published anonymously in 1818, everyone was like, “Whaaat? This shit’s crazy!” Although some critics hated it, it became incredibly popular, essentially created the genre of science fiction, and established a bunch of tropes that would get appropriated, mocked, and modified for centuries. It’s so scary and fucked up that it could only come from the mind of an adolescent girl.
1816–1855: “The Bell Brothers”
Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë were sisters born to a minister and his wife who must have had some kind of fucking genius literary genes, because their offspring produced some of the 19th century’s most enduring fiction. Emily wrote Wuthering Heights under the pen name “Ellis Bell,” Charlotte penned Jane Eyre as “Currer Bell,” Anne wrote Agnes Grey under “Acton Bell,” and all three became wildly successful (even after everyone found out they didn’t have dicks). Their brother, Branwell, was also reportedly a genius, but he was also a fuckup who got addicted to alcohol and opium and died of tuberculosis. Just like a man! Am I right, ladies?
1882–1941: Virginia Woolf
Educated by her parents, Virginia had nervous breakdowns and depressive collapses all her life. She was nuts, in the classical way, and published stories that reflected this. She was also an unprecedented literary genius whose books will remain in the Western canon for time immemorial. Then she put rocks in her coat pockets and drowned herself in the River Ouse. The end.
1903–1977: Anais Nin
Anais, my favorite bohemian slut, was married to two dudes at once and most definitely had some seriously hotttttt fuck times with Henry Miller. She wrote stories about old guys molesting little girls and tranced-out orgies in opium dens, as well as a plethora of personal diaries and philosophical insights. Talk about “having it all.”
1905–1982: Ayn Rand
A Benzedrine addict who was also a robot from outer space and wrote Atlas Shrugged. Don’t worry, she’s dead now. Thank God.
1929–1945: Anne Frank
Also dead, but you’ve probably read her diary.
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