Perfume Marketing and Feminist Aesthetics: ‘Alternative’ Styles in Advertising and the Male Gaze, Pt. 3

“Hey babe, your hair’s alright”: Rhianna Reb’l Fleur and Victoria Secret Love Rocks!

Before I even get to the ads, let’s look at Rhianna’s commentary on her scent, Reb'l Fleur:

The fragrance’s name, which is also a tattoo on Rihanna’s neck, originates from a name her grandmother called her. “My grandmother in Barbados used to call me her Rebel Flower,” Rihanna told People.

The scent is being described “like heels with a short, flirty dress” and comes in a high heel shaped bottle. The scent combines the impressions of delicious fruits and sumptuous florals, as well as a musky blend of vanilla, patchouli and amber.

“I believe a woman should dare to be different — willing to live her life for herself and not for other people,” Rihanna said in a press release. “This fragrance is about my passion for individuality — being expressive and empowering, yes, but also emotional and intriguing. I promise you Reb’l Fleur will not be easily forgotten.”

The 22-year-old singer tells People, “Over the years, I layered many different scents to get something that was truly my own. But I wanted…something that said ‘Rihanna was here.’ Something delicious and special, a fragrance with subtle hints that linger and leave a sexy memory.”

Rhianna, you are a huge disappointment, and not only because you’re following the ex-boyfriend who beat the crap out of you on twitter. FN1. No, it’s because you decided that “a woman should dare to be different — willing to live her life for herself and not for other people” was best expressed by a scent that is “heels with a short, flirty dress” and you dressed in nothing but bling, a sheet, and heels, stretched out like a human smorgasbord while you make eye-love to the camera. Is this what your grandma wanted? You topless under your blazer, sniffing at a flower as you gaze vacantly into the distance?

 I think you look way fiercer here in this photo of you performing. Why wasn’t this active image of you doing the thing you love, where you have talent and passion, a good enough image to sell your scent? And that’s why Reb’l fleur, for all its rebellious pomp and circumstance, utterly fails at being truly rebellious; it fails to actually challenge gender stereotypes, to march to a path not already beaten and worn by the cowed women before you.

 You want to be unique? You want to be a rebel? Next time try hawking your scent in the same clothes you’d wear to run to the grocery store or go to the gym.

. . . . . .

And while I’m picking on celebrities and their scents, let's talk about Taylor Momsen. Oh, little J. You were Dan's little sister, and the best thing about you was that you were cute and talented and into fashion and you looked like you could be anyone's little sister in America, or their next door neighbor? Where did that girl go?

Reader, do you remember Momsen when she was cute and healthy? Remember when she looked like a pretty girl you’d run into in a bookstore or high school car wash fundraiser? I miss that girl. I liked her. She was talented, adorable, and had a healthy BMI.

Now look at her. She’s out pimping for Victoria Secret Love Rocks and she looks like a zombified shadow of her former self. She is scary thin, and all that black crap around her eyes is not hiding their sunken look.FN2. I look at photos of her now, and I become terrified she will be like so many other young girls, dying of organ failure because they are riding the A-train straight into a living hell. Anorexia kills – literally. FN3.

Having personally seen more than one vibrant young woman slowly dying to be beautiful during the course of my long stay here in higher education, it is a horrific and torturous protracted event that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.

 I don’t see how starving yourself is rebellious. In my mind, it’s a level of internalized objectification to the point of self-hatred. The world sees you as an object, use once and destroy. You are thing, a decoration, to be pretty and ignored. And please, take up as little room as possible while you’re at it – these big men need room to move!

And I promise you, no matter how many rosaries you sport as necklaces or slip dresses you wear, death by starvation is not rebellious. It does not, in fact, “rock.” I guess I shouldn’t expect better in a rep from Victoria Secret, but I hope Momsen will realize she doesn’t need to trade eating for a career.

Tune in tomorrow for more ranting in my current series “‘Alternative’ Styles in Advertising and the Male Gaze,” also known as “Rebel without a Clue.”  If you missed yesterday's portion of the series, following the "Perfume and Feminist Aesthetics" tab above.
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FN1. And before any of you get up in my grill, I am aware of how difficult it is to leave an abuser; there are a lot of barriers. I am educated on the cycle of violence. I know very well that attempts to leave are fraught with increased violence and leaving is often the most dangerous time.  But Rhianna left her abusers and has the  financial, social, legal, and emotional resources to stay free. I find her electing to have contact with him disappointing, just like I find Oksana Grigorieva dropping her suit against Mel Gibson disappointing. I don’t require these women to be better role models for other women. I just wish they wanted to be, and wanted better for themselves.

FN2. For the record, Momsen claims she does not have an eating disorder and has “always been naturally thin.” (A) I think the photos above demonstrate that she is NOT as naturally thin as she appears right now and reports indicate she dropped 20 lbs to a 108lb size zero at age fifteen in 2008 for Gossip Girl. (B) Even if she is naturally thin, the fact that she is a "thinspiration” terrifies me at a level I can’t really comprehend.

FN3. A study by the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders reported that 5 – 10% of anorexics die within 10 years after contracting the disease; 18-20% of anorexics will be dead after 20 years and only 30 – 40% ever fully recover. The mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa is 12 times higher than the death rate of ALL causes of death for females 15 – 24 years old. (South Carolina Department of Mental Health, http://www.state.sc.us/dmh/anorexia/statistics.htm [Viewed May 22, 2011].)