Because it’s preferable to donning an exercise corset while smiling and calling it a choice.

“She’s not there to climb rocks, she looks like she’s there for sex” (EMS)

“How come all the guys are wearing clothes and all the women are in their underwear????” (Patagonia)

“The women are having fun together. They are going kayaking. The guy wants to come along, but they don’t have room and they didn’t invite him anyway, so they are ignoring him.” (REI)

This is why I love REI: people in the catalogs are always using the clothing, having a good time, and not presenting themselves for the male gaze.

EMS? It was all about the Male Gaze, at least the female models. Nicky picked that out right away. Patagonia’s female models don’t so much pose as if they were there for sex, but they wear absurd stuff in inappropriate context and never enought of it.

Vogue, on the other hand, and Steve Miesel, should be prosecuted for hate crime/speech. Just imagine the uproar if the subjects of subjection were black. I guess they would try to pass if off for verite. Could there be any clearer evidence of women as a subject class, of what the collective man secretly wants to do with them, or of how “fashion” subliminates that dominance? Actually, sublimination would be nice—what women get is both the sublimated manifestation and the direct violence. Amazingly up-front about it, Vogue is…

I don’t get why it’s so difficult for outdoors-clothing manufacturers to understand that all we usually need is the same equipment and clothing that they make for men, but sized and shaped slightly differently to fit women’s bodies. When I buy a waterproof jacket or other item, all I want is one that fits me, doesn’t come down to my knees and doesn’t have sleeves a foot too long. I don’t understand the purpose of making it pink or lilac and removing almost all the useful pockets. I don’t believe the majority of women who go climbing or hiking or sailing or other activities actually care about their clothing being feminine and pretty more than they care about it being practical. Pretty clothes are all very well, but they have their place, and half-way up a rock face or mountain is not it.

domination is bilaterally pornographic. that is, there exists both rape porn (male dominating female), and dominatrix porn (femdom). this analysis ignores other combinations (mm/ff/other) for the sake of simplicity.

in the vogue shoot, the rape porn is much more vivid. some of the pics have the woman holding the weapon, subtly hinting at femdom. If it were really reversed, with riot gear clad women stepping on men’s necks and applying full-nelsons, it would still be pornographic. femdom is erotic for for many man and women.