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Michael Caruso Friday March 6, 1998 Dear Mr. Caruso, I would like to bring to your attention the advertising campaign your magazine used for the March 1998 issue of Details. To my horror, "The Accidental Killer" featured the use of dead female bodies as mannequins to display fashions from many different clothing companies. It also made me extremely uncomfortable to see well-known celebrities endorsing such an obviously misogynist attempt to gain publicity. Not only does there seem to be a lack of female intervention into the creation of this pseudo-movie, there seems to be an almost complete exclusion of people of colour. The one time there is a non-white person on the "set", this man is portrayed and stylized to resemble an exploitative pimp. This man is unrepresentative of people of colour in our society. Your pseudo-movie also excludes people who are homosexual, old, or even dis/abled. The characters in the shoot are very heterosexual. The killer himself goes out of his way to maintain sexual relationships with two women. This pseudo-movie glamorizes death. It uses death to sell clothing. This is not an androgynistic death, but solely the death of women. We see them lying on the ground in contorted positions with blood running out their mouths or heads. We see them lying alone and alienated in morgues. There is no respect for these dead women. They are on display, to be gazed at by all the people your magazine is circulated to. We do not feel pity for them. We instead, notice that the clothing they are wearing comes from Couture Givenchy or Dolce & Gabbana. Have you ever seen a victim of a violent crime? Being a victim is definitely not as glamorous as you portray it. You make it seem trendy and this is an irresponsible attitude to have. The killer himself shows no remorse for the destruction he has initiated. His first taste of murder only piques his appetite for it. He is not punished by society; no, actually, he rewarded by it with the highest honours for "acting" available in America. He uses women to gain his own twisted publicity, much like your magazine is doing. He uses the murder of women to gain power and self-confidence. This parallels the reason why men kill women in real-life, especially their own wives and lovers. Are you aware that 30% of women murdered are done so by their husbands or lovers? Have you seen the numbers of women sexually assaulted by men? I have. I work for an organization on a university campus that strives to make students aware of the issues concerning personal safety and acquaintance sexual assault. I have seen first hand the destructive attitudes that face women. I have no idea how you could have made this fashion shoot more acceptable. Maybe it would come with an examination of your attitude towards women. Maybe an apology is necessary. No matter what you do, however, you have lost my trust. I will no longer purchase your magazine. Nor will I buy products from any of the companies featured in the shoot. My organization has begun a letter writing campaign against this kind of portrayal of women by the media. We will be notifying our local newspapers, television news studios, campus media, and the companies advertising in your magazine. I personally will spread the word about this terrible demonstration of misogyny and encourage my friends, family, and co-workers partake in a boycott of any organization associated with this pseudo-movie. That may include missing a Billy Zane movie, or throwing out my Calvin Klein jeans, but whatever it takes, I hope that our actions provoke you to review, correct, and improve the ways in which your magazine represents women. I use the word misogynist because any undertaking that defiles and degrades women, such as in your advertisements, is very androcentric and anti-woman. I notice that the story was written by a man, directed by a man, photographed by a man, and produced by men. If women were included in the decision making aspects of this "movie", I'm sure this photo shoot would have been much different. Instead, it is their dead bodies you admire, not their qualifications and professional abilities. In closing, I wish to reassert my outrage at your trivilization of violence against women. I think it is a deplorable way to sell clothing. You do not present your readers with any positive role models. You tell your male readers that their degradation of women is acceptable and that they will see positive results of their abuse. You tell your female readers that they are nothing more than sex objects and clothing mannequins. I will be expecting a response to this letter, or further action will be necessary. Disappointedly Yours,
Safer Campus Peer Educators See the images in our Gallery of Offenders. What were they thinking? |
