Annamari Vänskä ‘Vanska Offers New Perspectives on the Common Media Refrains Surrounding Children’S Appearance, Sexuality, and ‘Lost’ Innocence
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Trans Annamari Vänskä Annamari ‘Vanska offers new perspectives on the common media refrains surrounding children’s appearance, sexuality, and ‘lost’ innocence. This welcome contribution to the Malkki Eva by lated literature on children, fashion, and advertising provides Annamari Vänskä important historical and theoretical context for a frank analysis of contemporary controversies.’ Translated by Eva Malkki JENNIFER FARLEY GORDON, IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY, USA ‘Little has been written about the impact of fashion imagery and the representation of children’s identities until now. Original, highly informed and well researched, this book is an important contribution to the field of fashion scholarship.’ FASHIONABLE VICKI KARAMINAS, MASSEY UNIVERSITY, WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND ‘Reader Alert: This book turns heads. Fashionable Childhood is a compelling and insightful analysis of the significance of fashion and the contested terrain of childhood innocence. Anyone who thought fashion was marginal or trivial will think again. Annamari Vanska makes a valuable and timely contribution to the field, with a strikingly thought-provoking approach to making sense of modern childhood in contemporary times.’ MARY JANE KEHILY, THE OPEN UNIVERSITY, UK ANNAMARI VÄNSKÄ is Professor of Fashion Research at the Aalto University, Finland, and Adjunct Professor of CHILDHOOD Art History and Gender Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She is also a Visiting Professor at Shanghai College of Fashion, Donghua University, China. Translated by EVA MALKKI, professional translator and managing director of the sole-proprietor translation company Evaberry Ltd, Finland. FASHIONABLE Photograph © Heidi Lunabba. From the series “Twins”. FASHION www.bloomsbury.com Cover design: Clare Turner ISBN 978-1-4725-6844-1 90100 CHILDHOOD Also available Children In Advertising 9781472568441 from Bloomsbury FASHIONABLE CHILDHOOD 9781472568441_txt_rev.indd 1 1/24/17 7:15 PM 9781472568441_txt_rev.indd 2 1/24/17 7:15 PM FASHIONABLE CHILDHOOD Children in Advertising ANNAMARI VÄNSKÄ TRANSLATED BY EVA MALKKI Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc LONDONOXYOSYDN 9781472568441_txt_rev.indd 3 1/24/17 7:15 PM Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10018 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2017 © Annamari Vänskä, 2017 Translated by Eva Malkki, 2017 Annamari Vänskä has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author. Disclaimer: Images in this work have been used by the author and publisher on the basis of fair dealing for the purposes of criticism and review. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 978-1-4725-6845-8 PB: 978-1-4725-6844-1 ePDF: 978-1-4725-6846-5 ePub: 978-1-4725-6847-2 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Vänskä, Annamari, author. | Malkki, Eva, translator. | Translation of: Vänskä, Annamari. Muodikas lapsuus. Title: Fashionable childhood : children in advertising / Annamari Vänskä ; translated by Eva Malkki. Other titles: Muodikas lapsuus. English Description: New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. Identifiers: LCCN 2016043565| ISBN 9781472568441 (paperback) | ISBN 9781472568458 (hardback) Subjects: LCSH: Children in advertising. | Advertising–Psychological aspects. | Advertising–Children’s clothing. | Mass media and children. | BISAC: SOCIAL SCIENCE / Gender Studies. | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Children’s Studies. | DESIGN / Fashion. Classification: LCC HF5822 .V3613 2017 | DDC 659.19/74692–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016043565 Cover design: Clare Turner Cover image: Heidi Lunabba from the series “Twins” © Heidi Lunabba Typeset by Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd. Printed and bound in India 9781472568441_txt_rev.indd 4 1/24/17 7:15 PM CONTENTS List of Illustrations viii Acknowledgments xiii Introduction: Childhood as Media Spectacle 1 Today’s Looks-Obsessed Children 4 Healthy Mind in a Beautiful Body 5 Vogue Bambini: A Window into Fashionable Childhood 6 Fashion as Idealized Imagery 8 Multiple Meanings of Fashion 10 Learning Visual Literacy 11 1 Historically Constructed Childhood 15 (Ad)dressing Childhood: New Childhood Studies 19 In the Footsteps of Enlightenment Philosophers: Dressing Modern Childhood 21 Branded Childhood 25 Studying Brand Associations: A Brief History of Representation 27 Authentic and Natural Childhood at the Heart of a Brand 29 Unlocalized Images 31 Glocal or Global Meanings of Fashion and Images? 34 New Tribes and Brand Communities 35 2 Children through Fashion 39 Fashion as Change 40 The Added Value of Fashion 42 The Individual Clothes of the Modern Child 43 The Fashionable Mini-Me 44 Upper-Class Fantasies of Childhood 47 Fashion as the Language of Childhood 49 Gender-Coded Clothes for Children 53 Children’s Fashion: A Battlefield of Meanings 55 9781472568441_txt_rev.indd 5 1/24/17 7:15 PM vi CONTENTS 3 Innocent Children 59 A Brief History of Innocence 61 From Depravity to Innocence 62 Bringing up a Chaste Child 64 Future Hopes 64 From Miniature Adulthood to Innocent Childhood 65 Visual Grammar of the Natural Child 68 Commodified Innocence 71 Pink Innocence 74 Blue for a Bouncing Boy? 78 Gendered Innocence 82 The Attraction of the Fashion Image 84 4 Eroticized Innocence 87 Clothes as a Revelation of Personality 87 Snow-White Innocence 89 Ambivalence of Innocence and Sensuality 91 Lower-Class Symbols 92 Serious Play 95 Race and Innocence 100 Feminized Asia and Hot Latina Girls 103 Consumption of Otherness 107 5 Fashion as the Sexualizer of Children? 111 Sexualized Culture? 114 Children’s Clothes as Moral Guardians 118 Fetishized Innocence and Concealed Corporality 119 No Underwear! Obsession for Men! 121 The Child Freed from Innocence 122 Sensual Children in Advertising 123 From Liberation to Seduction 125 Protection or Control? 126 Children’s Fashion: Fantasy or Reality? 127 Looking at Children: The Problem of the Adult Gaze 128 6 Heterosexual Innocence 133 Fashioning a Heteronormative Childhood 136 Kissing Children 139 9781472568441_txt_rev.indd 6 1/24/17 7:15 PM CONTENTS vii Heteronormative Messages of Clothes 141 Learning Heterosexuality 142 Grown-Up Babies 145 7 Queer Children in Fashion Advertising 149 The Tombstone of Heterosexuality and Gender Nonconformity 150 The Polymorphously Perverse Child 151 Queering Childhood 152 Androgynous Cross-Dressers and Feminine Girl Couples 154 Not for Sissies! Hegemonic Masculinity 159 Homosocial Little Boys 160 Gentlemanly Looks 162 Secret Friendship 163 Fair Sailors 164 Fabulous Gays in Fashion Advertising 167 8 Sexualization Is the Name of the Game 171 Child Modeling—a Rising Trend 172 Living Dolls 174 Kindergarteners in Vampy Lipstick and Stilettos 177 Evokers of Strong Emotions 180 Les Cadeaux sont un Jeu D’enfants 182 History of the Sexual Child 184 The Immaterial Value of Child Modeling 185 Working for the Affect Economy 186 Epilogue: The Right to One’s Own Style 189 Notes 192 Sources and Bibliography 211 Index 233 9781472568441_txt_rev.indd 7 1/24/17 7:15 PM LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS I.1 From the series Twins, Helsinki, 2010. © Heidi Lunabba. xvi 1.1 From the series Twins, Helsinki, 2010. © Heidi Lunabba. 14 1.2 Fashion images do not often reveal their constructedness, unlike this ad by Maripier from 1982. © Maripier 1982. Photograph by Danilo Frontinini. 17 1.3 Seen it all—experienced it all. Children were represented as miniature adults in seventeenth-century paintings. Anthony van Dyck, The Children of Charles I of England. © Getty Images. Photograph by De Agostini/Turin, Galleria Sabauda (Picture Gallery). 23 1.4 Childhood androgyny is a recurring theme in fashion advertising. Here the brand is constructed as a promoter of androgynous and natural childhood. © Versace 1996. 26 1.5 Innocence as understood by the French children’s fashion brand Arthur. © Arthur 1996. 30 1.6 Armani’s advertisement draws from the visual history of childhood innocence and suggests that innocent children need adult protection. © Armani Junior 2008. 33 1.7 We are the world—multiculturalism as understood by Benetton. Photograph by Oliviero Toscani. © Benetton 1985. 36 2.1 From the series Twins, Paris, 2012. © Heidi Lunabba. 38 2.2 A French vintage fashion illustration featuring a stylish lady with four young children in a comfortable interior, published in Paris, circa November 1878. Photograph by Popperfoto. © Getty Images. 45 2.3 Mme C. Fredrick Worth with her two sons in 1863. In Jean Philippe Worth, A Century of Fashion (1928) © The British Library. 46 9781472568441_txt_rev.indd 8 1/24/17 7:15 PM LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix 2.4 The fashion magazine Vogue Bambini inspires designers and photographers, guides adults into the world of children’s fashion, and constructs an idealized image of childhood. Vogue Bambini cover, September–October 1981. © Vogue Bambini/Condé Nast. 49 2.5 Vogue Bambini cover