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Gender and Desire in Polo Ralph Lauren, continued... There is also the question of his smile. Although I think an argument can be made that the model, because he looks directly at the viewer, is engaged in an act of "masculine" looking, thus reversing the power structure between viewer and viewed, I suggest that because the model is smiling he partially relinquishes this power of looking. He may be looking, but his smile suggests that he is posing in order to be looked at. Thus, here is a model who is neither a "male" nor a "female" pin-up, to use Dyer's terms, but someone whose gender identity is far less fixed than these false binary categories. Although I think that this image would project an entirely different feeling were the model not smiling, but still looking back at the viewer, I think that because he is both looking and smiling, his gender and his sexuality are ambiguous. It is this ambiguity—the sexual ambiguity of a subject who looks while being looked at—that affords the viewer so many pleasures. Subversive Pleasures So, what kinds of pleasures might viewers find in this advertisement? There are at least three kinds. Sean Nixon, a theorist who has applied Laura Mulvey's theories on visual pleasure in film to visual pleasure in magazines and in shopping, suggests that one kind of pleasure may be that gained by identifying with the subject, that is, by assuming the identity of the object (a person, in this case) on display. (61) A second kind of pleasure is the narcissistic pleasure of imagining oneself as the object being looked at by oneself. Finally, I would suggest there is a voyeuristic pleasure—a vicarious pleasure gained not so much by identifying with the image but rather by surreptitiously watching someone else (the model) engage in a fantasy of identification—the pleasure of being a "peeping Tom." First let us consider the pleasure of identification. As mentioned earlier, Fischer states, "It would be unlikely for an American boy growing up in the 40's or 50's not to have a cowboy hero." (62) Thus, by looking at an image for Polo Western Wear (Fig. 1), many "boys" have the opportunity to live out the fantasy of becoming their cowboy hero. "Boys" can imagine themselves carrying the rope and hat and strolling home after a grueling day of physical labor. (Whom they meet there and what ensues is left to the imagination, too.) Second, there is a narcissistic pleasure. Speaking within the context of shopping, Sean Nixon states, "the narcissistic components of looking can be read as a form of self-surveillance, a self-visualization with the modes of address at play within the processes of looking and buying." (63) Applying this statement to the context of a magazine, the subject gains narcissistic pleasure by imagining himself looking at himself in print. (Perhaps Lauren himself is engaging in this pleasure.) Third, there is the pleasure of voyeurism, gained by fantasizing about the model (a sexual object for the viewer) who acts out his fantasy of becoming a cowboy. But sexual pleasure in this advertisement is certainly not limited to men. Indeed, the fact that this advertisement appears in a women's fashion magazine leaves open the possibility that this model might also be a source of pleasure for some women as well. The model's earthy brand of masculinity would certainly appeal to many women reading Vogue. Many women might also find his "cloning" and role-playing attractive, too. Indeed, the fact that the advertisement appears in Vogue suggests that perhaps Polo Ralph Lauren is even encouraging women to desire the model and to transfer this desire to their husbands and boyfriends by purchasing such clothes for the men in their lives. What about the lesbian viewer? Is it possible that a lesbian looking at this advertisement might fantasize about other lesbians who embody this masculinity? (64) As Judith Halberstam, author of Female Masculinity, points out, "masculinity must not and cannot and should not reduce down to the male body and its effects." (65) Assuming then, that masculinity is a construction, something that can be performed and worn, for some female viewers this advertisement may offer the same pleasures of identification, narcissism and voyeurism mentioned above. By assuming the role played by the man in the advertisement, a woman can imagine herself as a man, as a woman, as a woman dressed as a man, or she might do none of these and not fantasize at all. This image, and others like it produced by Polo Ralph Lauren (see Figs. 2, 3 and 4), leave much to the viewer's imagination. And this is perhaps the image's ultimate pleasure—its infinite opportunities for subversion. For although Polo Ralph Lauren has posited this image as a heterosexual fantasy, the viewer need not take part in that fantasy, but instead may create one that is her or his own. There are, ultimately, many "rhetorics" in this image. There are many rhetorics because there are many subject positions, and there are many subject positions because there are many, many ways to perform, and to take pleasure in performing, gender. Judith Butler has written about such gender performativities at length. She writes,
Though advertising asks the viewer to look one way, the viewer has the power to look another way—to look away, even. Because gender is performative, it has unlimited possibilities for interpretation and interpolation. So when it comes to gender in advertising, then, viewers have their own kind of "advertising agency"—an agency that allows them to alter, subvert, accept or ignore. May 10, 2002 ~~~ |
