Can't [Re]Touch This: #aerieREAL Campaign Makes Us Say "Oh, my Lord"
8:33 AM
Dun na na na… How about a little background noise, ya hear?
aeire (a subset brand of American Eagle), recently released a new advertisement campaign to promote their lingerie and lounge wear targeted at young women in high school and college.
The new campaign, #aerieREAL, includes images of women wearing pieces from aerie's separates collections. There's everything you would expect from your standard lingerie brand - there's pink, and lace, and a seemingly endless pool of white (probably high thread count) bedding. But then again, there's nothing you would expect from your standard lingerie brand.
All of the images seen in this campaign are sans-retouching.
When going through the press photos, you'll see tattoos, and "discolored" skin tones on stomachs, and most notably, and more normally, you'll see that when the models are leaning over or lying down they have skin where most women have skin, they have the ever-so-slightest (and lovely) roll to their body and form. The women featured in the campaign range in size and physique - some are petite and beautifully delicate, others are athletic looking, and others are notably "curvy." Without retouching, the positions of the women don't looking outrageously contorted, nor do the models look un/ideally-disproportionate.
Why is this important? Why is this so outstanding?
Imagine a world where women are seen as beautiful; all women, their bodies affirmed and appreciated. Today, this is far from our media reality. This is far from the projections and demands that we see and internalize. This is far from what our daughters, and sisters, and even mothers are allowed to glorify or hope to become.
These models, as it would be said on Toddlers & Tiaras (YES, I did just make this reference, everyone calm down… that's a different story), have "high facial beauty," they are inarguably gorgeous. Surprisingly, however, even these women are affected by these images of their bodies. In speaking to Elle.com, aerie model, Amber Tolliver said:
"I do like to see a little retouching on myself. I mean, any normal person is slightly insecure about little things on their body, and you can blink an eye and poof, it's gone, great [but] to recreate a human being using a computer process is a bet of an attach on who you naturally are, like if I'm not good enough or if I'm not beautiful enough, then why'd you book me?"
Goodness gracious. Amber Tolliver has concern of not being beautiful enough to be engaged in or affirmed by American beauty culture. **insert dramatic sign here**
While my initial reaction is to sing the praises of this campaign and aerie for their appreciation of the (normal yet awesome) human body, I have to ask, how long will this last? When will this campaign come to an end? When will this "phase" pass and the company return to their former choppier/thinner/tanner/toned projects? Or, is aerie willing to step out like Verily Magazine and permanently ban airbrushing from their pages?
I hope it's the latter. I hope with all my heart.
There is something to be said for young women seeing these images. In a catch 22: it is a lingerie company and young girls and women should not have to be concerned with how they look in lingerie or how others think they look while wearing it. However, seeing these images makes self-affirmation, self-love, self-glorifiation all the more possible. While retouching and photoshop will not go away anytime soon, imagine a world where "I look like that" is a strike of confidence and not a line of defeat.
#aerieREAL, you done good.
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