Yesterday, it was announced that the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) had banned a year-old Calvin Klein ad featuring singer FKA Twigs for its “sexual overture” and portraying her as “a stereotypical sexual object”.
Now, however, she has fired back saying that “I do not see the ‘stereotypical sexual object’ that they have labelled me”.
Posting on Instagram, FKA Twigs added “in light of reviewing other campaigns past and current of this nature, I can’t help but feel there are some double standards here. so to be clear…
“I am proud of my physicality and hold the art I create with my vessel to the standards of women like Josephine Baker, Eartha Kitt and Grace Jones who broke down barriers of what it looks like to be empowered and harness a unique embodied sensuality. thank you to ck and mert and marcus who gave me a space to express myself exactly how I wanted to – I will not have my narrative changed”.
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The ASA said in its assessment of the advert that it “considered the image’s composition placed viewers’ focus on the model’s body rather than on the clothing being advertised. The ad used nudity and centred on FKA Twig’s physical features rather than the clothing, to the extent that it presented her as a stereotypical sexual object. We therefore concluded ad (a) was irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence”.
Nowhere in the ASA’s assessment of the ad was any mention of FKA Twigs’ art or the worthiness of her “vessel” to create that art.
At the same time as FKA Twigs’ campaign was released, Kendall Jenner appeared in another Calvin Klein campaign, which featured the American model completely topless. However, the ASA found that these ads featured a “stylised” image and a ” level of nudity” that was “not beyond that which people would expect for a lingerie ad”.
Of course, it should be noted that Calvin Klein campaigns regularly toe the line (and often overstep it) with regard to nudity. Recently, the brand released a very crotch-heavy campaign featuring The Bear actor Jeremy Allen White to much fanfare.
