Because rape is so very fashionable

So, some knobs at Dolce & Gabbana (actually, Dolce and Gabbana themselves) thought this ad was a good idea. Gabbana claims that the ad does NOT depict a rape scene and suggests that we interpret it as an erotic dream or a sexual game.

Now, if the woman in the ad were looking lustily into that dude's eyes - the dude who is wearing dark sunglasses and pinning her down, by the way - I could maybe buy it a little. Then it might just suggest that she's a little slutty. But she's not looking lustily into sweaty dude's eyes. She's looking to the side, and she doesn't look happy. Perhaps she's looking for an escape route.

But aside from that, the woman is also pushing up on those strappy spiked heels in a pose that looks a teeny bit like she's trying to push herself back away from the dude. It's not an invitational pose, anyway.

And then there are the creepy, sweaty men standing around watching the activity, suggestive of a gang rape. Six-pack dude is already half naked and is clearly interested in something.

Perhaps some people's "erotic dreams" or "sexual games" involve rape fantasies, but I would venture a guess that this is only true because advertisements like this suggest that rape is just another sexual (and sexy) act. It's not. It's about overpowering and degrading women (and sometimes men) with the metaphorical and literal phallus. It's about putting women in their place. It's about telling women they are nothing more than a collection of holes and that access to those holes is to be controlled by others. There is nothing erotic or game-like about it. Not for the rapee, anyway.

On a side note, who the hell wears high heels with a swimsuit anyway? Do men hate women's bodies so much that high heels are called in to "fix" the way those bodies look at all times, even in swimsuits? 'Cause it's men who design this shit, and even when it's women doing the designing and wearing, it's still through men's eyes we're all trained to see women's bodies. Like our very own deeply-imbedded Patriarchy-tinted sunglasses.

Hey, maybe that's what the sweaty dude is wearing.