I had to beg Miss Jay for my job back. It took a few weeks but after many of the employees came down with the flu, she conceded. The day I came back was not too chilly for October. On days like this, it’s common for an A&F store to have models standing outside of the store to attract customers. Mostly these are men... shirtless men.
Regardless of the fact that A&F’s goal is to sell clothes, these men stirred up much attention with just jeans on. This is a perfect example of how Abercrombie upholds, supports and furthers the oversexualization of the retail industry by using sex to sell their clothing brand, rather than the clothing itself. If A&F was a person, I would look at that person who was showing of his or her assets and feel pity. I feel pity for any individual who feels the need to take off clothing to garner attention because it creates a dangerous pattern of placing the naked body more and more into the mainstream. This has made displays such as the ones Abercrombie puts on, a societal norm.
No wonder the female workers whose panties show during work, are not reprimanded. Because images of women in lingerie are so common (think Victoria Secret billboards and commercials), society has become immune to them and therefore, undergarments are socially acceptable. There is a scary link here to the porn industry, which also had become an accepted aspect of life. Instead of the majority taking action against the reliance of one’s self on the body for sexual purposes, we as a culture have promoted it. If most of humanity had an issue with A&F merchandise showing too much skin or marketing tools (male models) being too promiscuous, the store itself would have shut down long ago. I feel helpless in this fight to take one’s body out of the equation in the career world. We should only need to rely on our intelligence for work but because I cannot reify my intelligence without a college degree, that has become impossible. This feeling of helplessness is engulfing me.
