This lingerie commercial is mostly stereotypical — an attractive woman gets out of the shower, drops her towel, and proceeds with her dressing ritual. She puts on sexy underwear, slides seductively into stockings (though moments before she was inexplicably wearing stilettos while leaving the bathroom), and applies her makeup after she pulls her hair out of a towel and it POOFS magically into full sexy curls.
The twist is at the end when the woman is seen wearing a hijab with face covering and presumably a burqa as well — the burqa isn’t explicitly shown, but given the tagline, “Sexiness for everyone. Everywhere.” It is implied that the sexy lingerie she’s donning might won’t be seen, but it’s still making her feel sexy.
The debate over whether this commercial is empowering or just exploitative is alive and kicking over in the Jezebel comments section.
What do you think? Is this just another example of an “exotic” woman being degraded, or is this commercial giving attention to an underrepresented group? Does the lack of explicit male gaze make the commercial seem better (because this woman is doing this for herself, by herself), or is the implied male gaze still overpowering? Is it borked from the beginning by portraying female nudity, when it’s likely that a Muslim that is conservative enough to wear the garb the model is wearing by the end of the commercial would find the nudity in the commercial morally offensive? I think that, whatever your feelings about the commercial in particular, it’s existence in general has raised some interesting questions and gotten people talking.
Thoughts? You can leave them here or in the comments.
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