SEXZINE

KEEP IT IN YOUR PANTS!

We’ve all seen it. We do it ourselves. But no one really stops to take notice of it.

How often do you see groups of friends and couples sitting together, yet more involved with what is on their screens than what is actually going on around them? It’s a sad state of affairs, and we think this piece, ‘The Lonely Crowd” by Hughes Art is absolutely spot on.

Here’s two tech rules we’ve adopted and try to live by:

1. Keep it in your pants:

If you are in the company of another person, then for Gods sake, keep it in your pants - (the phone that is). Ideally, keep your hands away from your phone unless you actually need to call someone! How many real human interactions are we missing out on because we’re too busy finger-banging our phones? Too many in our opinion!

2. Sharing is not always caring.

We all know at least one of these - that person that has to share everything on facebook or twitter or any other social media platform. Now don’t get us wrong - we’re not social media haters per se, but the problem arises when the act of sharing the story becomes more important than the actual story itself. Here’s an example I saw recently:

A couple was standing in a scenic location and was posing a fake kiss over and over in order to get a perfect self photo, then, after a few attempts they turned away from each other and both jumped on their phones, instantly tapping away to put this picture (presumably of them being ‘in love’) on the internet.

Now, all I’m saying here is this: Perhaps we don’t need to have a photo on facebook of every ‘happy’ moment to justify our experience, maybe we should just focus on enjoying these moments for what they are - a temporary moment that can only really be preserved in the hearts and minds of the people we lived it with.

AMERICAN APPAREL: THE NEIGHBOURHOOD SLUT OF THE FASHION INDUSTRY.

We’ve featured American apparel ads on here before - exactly because of their sexual nature. We’re fascinated by the ways sex is used in all mediums; from art to film to advertising, so we’re particularly interested in this recent story:

It appears that AA may have pushed it’s luck a  little bit too far according to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), who’ve banned their recent campaign which features semi-naked young women, after investigating a complaint that it is “pornographic and exploitative”.

The part that we find particularly interesting is that the ASA said the ads featured a “voyeuristic and amateurish quality which served to heighten the impression that the ads were exploitative of women and inappropriately sexualised young women”.

To their defence, American Apparel rejected the accusations, arguing that the images featured “real, non-airbrushed, everyday people” who were mainly not professional models.

Whichever way you feel about it, you gotta admit that they’re pushing the boundaries of the “sex sells” mantra. It seems to us that AA is at the forefront of companies who are tapping into sexual niches (such as ‘self shots’, amatuer and voyuerism) rather than just relying on the mainsream airbrushed-poppy-perfectly-photographed approach.

How else will companies explore our ever evolving sexual landscape, and what does it say about our sexual attitudes in society? We’ll have to wait and find out…

What do you think about the American Apparel ads? Do you think they exploit or sexualise women any more than other forms of advertising? Send us a your thoughts!