Studies in 20th Century Literature Volume 20 Issue 2 French Issue: The Object in France Today: Six essays collected and edited by Article 7 Martine Antle with five essays on French narrative 6-1-1996 Fashion, Bodies, and Objects Jean-François Fourny Ohio State University Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/sttcl Part of the Film and Media Studies Commons, and the French and Francophone Literature Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Fourny, Jean-François (1996) "Fashion, Bodies, and Objects," Studies in 20th Century Literature: Vol. 20: Iss. 2, Article 7. https://doi.org/10.4148/2334-4415.1397 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Studies in 20th Century Literature by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Fashion, Bodies, and Objects Abstract This essay is based on the assumption that the body has undergone a process of fragmentation that started with "modern" art and commodity fetishism that is being amplified today by an increasingly fetishistic high fashion industry itself relayed by music videos and a gigantic pornography industry. This article begins with a discussion of fetishism and objectification as they appear in high fashion shows where underwear becomes wear (turning the inside into the outside), thus expanding (or dissolving) the traditional notion of pornography because they are both reported in comparable terms by mainstream magazines such as Femmes and less conventional publications such as Penthouse.