Portrayals of Lesbians in Advertising

Sex sells. Everyone knows it. The trend has always been that an attractive, scantily clad woman and a bit of suggestive copy can sell anything. Beers, cars, vitamins, sunglasses, sneakers, cell phones - women have been reduced to objects to hock just about anything.

But the latest "it's hot because it's taboo!" trend in advertising is the girl-on-girl kiss. Some say it's a step forward - when society glamorizes same-sex behavior, it provides visibility to lesbians, or at least lesbian experimentation. More visibility leads to more acceptance.

On the other hand, some say all this lesploitation is damaging to society's perceptions of lesbians. When people see girls kissing each other to attract male attention, it reinforces unpleasant stereotypes about lesbians - i.e. that no woman is really satisfied in a relationship with a woman, and just "hasn't met the right man yet."

The latest example of this phenomenon is the newest French Connection UK (FCUK) "Fashion Vs. Style" advertising campaign. In the commercial, two women, one labeled "fashion," one labeled "style," have a sexualized, special-effects-filled catfight. Classical music plays while Fashion and Style tear off each others' clothes and show off kicks and gymnastics. One woman thrusts her opponent's face into her breasts. One woman pins the other to a metal fence and kisses her, just before a retaliatory head-butt.

The ad has apparently sparked quite a controversy, partially because of the female-female sexuality, partially because of the implied link between violence and sexuality.

According to the UK's Sunday Mirror, the commercial generated more than 100 complaints after just one showing. Advertising standards chiefs have been asked to decide whether the ad is too extreme to be seen on television. British TV has already restricted the ad show that it can only be shown after 9pm. They describe the commercial as "the raunchiest ad ever shown on British TV."

The Sunday Mirror also published interviews with the commercials actors, Talia Santo and Carly Harrop. Santo described the kiss as "great," and added, "I'd kiss her all the time, if she wants me to, she's got great lips." She then goes on to say, "I'm not a lesbian really. I'm on the lookout for a man."

The subtext seems to be: "It's okay to kiss girls as long as you aren't a lesbian really."

According to Boston's NBC news, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino is pressuring the clothing store to dump the 'Fashion vs. Style' ad because he finds the ad offensive to women.

The Mayor said in a statement, 'The women should be portrayed in more positive light. The ad campaign both connects and promotes negative images of women and violence, certainly not how we want girls and young women to see themselves, and most definitely not a path we want them to follow.'

It's hard not to wonder what the mayor objects to - the violence, or the girl-girl sexual expression.

Is this particular kind of pseudo-lesbian expression even worth defending? After all, this "lesbian" kiss isn't presented in the context of a relationship or even a realistic encounter. Feminist Linda Bellos puts it bluntly: "This is every man's fantasy with knobs on."

Does all this girl-on-girl action demonstrate acceptance of fluid female sexuality, or is all this "experimenting" just to attract male attention?

The Belfast Telegraph reports that the "Sex Sells" strategy has actually failed FCUK this time, claiming, "Customers... aren't too partial to images of lesbianism and fisticuffs." They are reporting a further collapse in sales and profits as well as "howls of outrage from offended viewers."

According to the Telegraph, "Retail analysts blamed part of the recent sales decline on the [catfight-and-kiss] campaign... Despite the latest trading disappointment, executives at French Connection are understood to be pleased that the ad created so much fuss." The Telegraph also called the company's advertising - including their "FCUK" acronym - "controversial" and "tacky."

But not everyone feels negatively about the commercial. Michael Wilke, creator of Commercial Closet, said, "More people would agree than not that some inclusion is better than invisibility, even while realistic lesbian representation is fairly limited and narrow... It's kind of a status quo situation. There hasn't been a great deal of turnaround in terms of more realistic or less sexualized lesbians in commercials. There isn't a great diversity of representation. Across the board, it's male fantasy."

Commercial Closet is a nonprofit organization founded in 2001 and dedicated to "bringing GLBT sensitivity to corporate advertising." According to their website, http://www.commercialcloset.org, the project encourages discourse about GLBT portrayals in advertising, conducts sensitivity training, and produces a syndicated column.

The FCUK ad is available at the Commercial Closet website. Information about the ad and a summary are also provided, as well as brief comments.

"One thing to keep in mind," Wilke comments, "is that FCUK is taking a familiar page from fashion advertising with a past well-paved already by Diesel and Calvin Klein to create something intended to be controversial and attract attention. Where you fall on that approach is potentially mixed, but we can see that what they're doing is obviously intended to create a response that's beyond the more mundane advertising."

"In the fashion category, we're conditioned to expect sex from advertising and even more consistently from the fashion category of advertising. What's ironic is despite how much fashion ad tend to be about sex, how infrequently it addresses homosexuality."

On Commercial Closet's website, ads are categorized as Positive, Negative, Neutral, Gay Vague or Stereotype. The FCUK ad is categorized as Neutral.

According to Commercial Closet, the FCUK ad "earns an Equal rating because it glamorizes a sexually charged female-on-female interaction. The kiss at the end of the ad suggests the symbolic union between fashion and style more than physical attraction."

When asked to clarify these comments, Wilke referred to the site's Rating Explanations page. The explanation for "Neutral/Equal" reads, "Gayness, bisexuality or being transgendered is treated as a non-issue in these commercials. Like people of color are now often shown, gays are included in vignettes and sometimes in the mix of a larger campaign. This may be what the future of gays in commercials will look like: part of a larger whole. These ads meet Commercial Closet's Best Practices."

But at the same time, one of the ad's listed themes is: "Lipstick Lesbians/Straight Male Fantasy." 114 ads share this theme, which is described by Commercial Closet, "These women are every bit a fantasy of what a lesbian "should" look like to straight men - scantily clad with lots of makeup and long hair. Female pairings are rarely for their own enjoyment as a couple in the ad story (or for female consumers viewing them), but usually for the man's purpose in the ad and/or for straight male consumer voyeurism."

Being seen as a non-issue and as part of a larger whole sounds like a pretty reasonable and worthy goal for GLBT portrayal. But is glamorization of lipstick lesbianism and straight male fantasy truly a harmless advertising tactic?

Responding to the controversy surrounding the ad, Wilke comments, "It's disappointing that we can see violence so frequently in entertainment media and that's more acceptable than an expression of love between two people. Whether this ad is an expression of love or something else intended, is a separate question."

The FCUK commercial is similar to a 2003 Miller Lite commercial aired during the Super Bowl in that both advertisements feature sexualized catfights. Two women tear each others clothes off and wrestle in a fountain while arguing over whether Miller Lite "tastes great" or is "less filling."

The scene is interrupted by two men sitting in a bar. One exclaims, "Now that would make a great commercial!" The other asks, "Who wouldn't want to watch that?" The camera pans to two women with confused, somewhat hostile looks.

The commercial then returns to a continuation of the previous scene. The women throw each other into a pit of cement. Then one woman grabs the other and says, "Let's make out!"

Clearly the campy commercial has elements of satire, but it still struck many critics and consumers as gratuitous and offensive.

This ad was also given a "Neutral" rating from Commercial Closet. However, a visitor to the site named Jennifer from Texas, wrote the following comment: "To me it trivializes a same-sex relationship as something to be watched and laughed at. That it is somehow just there for others amusement..."

Surely there must be room for more than pseudo-lesbian eye candy in corporate advertising.

Ellen Degeneres has become the spokesperson for American Express. Tennis star Martina Navratilova has been seen in ads for Subaru with other female athletes, which was said to represent a huge step forward for the automotive industry. These commercials have no gay or lesbian content, but at least these individual lesbians are being embraced by corporate advertising campaigns.

Whether laughed at or leered at, lesbians shouldn't have to settle for providing male amusement.