Sexy Death
I found this ad for DeBeer’s jewelry in the February issue of Vogue, most likely targeted towards young adults (possibly 20’s and 30’s). The first thing that caught my eye and made me pause was the void look in the woman’s eye. The model in the picture is set to look as if she were dead, possible strangled with the diamonds strung across her neck, or tied up in them and left to drown (notice the tiny bubbles on the left). As strange and offensive as this image is, it seems to be a popular one in our media. Almost anywhere a person can find an image of the death of a beautiful woman being glorified. For one, it’s a key component of American horror films. Rarely do you see a mainstream horror film that doesn’t depict an unrealistically beautiful woman running in vain for her life, wearing only her black lacy underwear (maybe because she runs faster…?). Those scenes added to advertisements like these send out the repeated message that death and murder are sexy; it glorifies violence against women and possibly contributes to why so many women are victims in America.
Another couple jarring features of this advertisement was the woman’s unmistakable and flawless beauty and the placement of the string across her mouth. The colors and shadows of the woman’s skin and hair all seem to blend perfectly and softly together to make up ideal and perfectly symmetrical features. And her skin is so flawless, it almost looks as if it were made of wax. This makes her both sub-human, since she is not made of flesh and blood like men, and fuels the idea that the way a woman should look is completely unattainable. The placement of her necklace across her mouth also bothers me because it’s as if she is being cut off from what she is saying and silenced. This is also a common feature of advertisements, and builds an unconscious idea that women shouldn’t be talking, and if they must say something, they should let their material objects (such as the diamonds) speak for them.