Show Me Some Leg… and Cry Racism!

This is another CP+B gem of an odd spot for Old Navy, although somewhat entertaining in a mindless "I don't have nearly enough sundresses" kind of way.

But, for some in the audience, it's also loaded.

Nazneen Patel , writer and political provocateur, recognizes that "it's obnoxious and counterproductive to cry 'RACE' every time something like this makes an appearance. Yet, she can't help herself.

Among the many vitriolic stereotypes leveraged against the African-American community, one of the most incendiary has been the hypersexualization of Black men and women. Black men are always portrayed as the savage, sexually-superior antithesis to all things decent about white men. Black women are thought of as subhuman, irresponsible, and promiscuous. When a Black woman sees a mannequin meant to resemble her, from the hairstyle to skin color, to the twangy regional dialect, it's hard to separate the mannequin from what it represents. It becomes difficult to understand why she is stripped of her clothing and left standing there with her "plastic" unmentionables censored. It just seems a little unnecessary doesn't it? Why even go there?

I don't want to be the only one to belittle this criticism… but come on people. Is there anything really here except pure "adverstupidity"… or "adverfun". WOW!!!

I might want to point out "body dismemberment" as a much bigger issue, that a woman's body parts are replaceable... but then again a multi-billion dollar cosmetic surgery industry can't be wrong. Right? Hmmmm the debate. We have raised a generation of young women who know if their bodies aren't what they want... change it. "B" cup, no problem, "C" cup is just a few borrowed dollars away. I guess if we really could go to the back of the store and find a new pair of legs in a box we just might do it.

I see that the "black" woman is the most comfortable in her skin… Rip the dress off any of those "white" ladies and they'd shrivel up and cry. Geeeez… they are fricking mannequins. There is one burning question, why does the young girl rip the dress of the lady? Is this just another typical stereotype of the out of control pre-teen on the loose in an American mall?

Oh, one more question. When did a sundress become a "mid-town" gown?