Glenda: ‘Being sexy is not degrading’
One woman who knows more than most about magazine portfolios and product advertising is model Glenda Gilson, a veteran of hundreds of photo campaigns.
“I think that you have the choice as a model,” said Ms Gilson who has made a successful career from her profession.
“I do not think it is degrading for a model to wear a bikini or a sexy dress. We should be proud of our form.”
However, she added that it can depend on the way the model portrays herself in the image.
“You can wear a bikini and look sexy or you can wear it and look sleazy,” she said. “It depends on what way you are showing yourself off.
“I believe in the photos that I have done I have always looked OK.”
She admitted, however, that in different, more provocative poses there is more of a risk that the shots could be seen as degrading.
“A model is not selling herself,” she added. “She is selling the items that are put on her.
“At the end of the day we are not living in the 1800s. Women have curves and better bodies than men to look at, so why not?”
Fellow model Katy French said the sexuality of beautiful women has been used as a marketing tool for centuries and for many it was seen as a way of empowering women.
She said she could not see that changing anytime soon because the advertising lobby is so strong.
“A woman’s sexuality is used because it is one of the most powerful images that exist,” she said. “There is plenty of scope for that sexuality in advertising as long as it is maintained at appropriate levels.
“It is a matter of supply and demand. At the end of the day everyone wants to be sexy, that is why it is in advertising,” she said.
Ms French also argued that it was not the case women were always portrayed as the homemaker while the men were given executive roles.
She said there was numerous advertising campaigns that assigned women with strong commercial roles.
