FKA Twigs poses in a denim shirt that slides down the middle of her body, leaving part of her butt and chest exposed. The black and white photograph is part of Calvin Klein’s latest campaign, an image that has been censored in the United Kingdom for being “excessively sexualized.”
The ASA, the English advertising standards authority, considers that the campaign focuses on the artist’s body and not on the clothing she promotes. “The ad used nudity and focused on FKA Twigs’ physical features rather than clothing, to the point of presenting her as a stereotypical sexual object. “We therefore concluded that the advertisement was irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence,” they detailed in a statement.
The first to respond and react to this controversy have been those of the brand itself. The bosses of Calvin Klein have defended the FKA Twigs ad and that of Kendall Jenner – where the model also poses shirtless holding her breasts, although the ASA has placed it within the limits of advertising – arguing that the poses adopted were “natural and neutral”.
“The images were not vulgar and you can see two confident and empowered women who had chosen to identify with the Calvin Klein brand, and the ads contained a progressive and enlightened message,” they said in a statement. The brand also argued that all “conventionally sensitive” areas of the body were fully covered and that both “felt empowered and self-confident for having participated.”
Finally, the firm wanted to emphasize that male models also participated in that same campaign, as is the case with the viral campaign starring Jeremy Allen White. The actor from the series The Bear “broke the Internet” with his posing in his underwear, to which he made humorous reference in the conference after the Golden Globes gala: “I am proud of both things, but of the Globe I pray even more…”.
FKA Twigs has also come out in defense of the campaign and her body through her social networks, denying the sexualization to which the English authority alludes, and has pointed out a “double standard” in this campaign. “I don’t see the ‘stereotypical object’ that I have been labeled with. “I see a strong, beautiful woman of color whose incredible body has overcome more pain than one can imagine.”
