The world’s most famous nude calendar has gone makeup free and there’s nothing groundbreaking about that
PIRELLI — a company made famous for using raunchy images of scantily clad models to sell tyres — is using a different kind of nude image.
IT READS like a riddle.
Pirelli — a company made famous for using highly sexualised images of scantily clad models to sell tyres to men — is rebranding under the banner of body positivity.
They’re boldly promoting women’s empowerment and acceptance of who they really are (although still with the primary purpose of selling tyres to blokes).
The Pirelli Calendar has held iconic status in the fashion industry for decades. From humble beginnings as a corporate freebie back in 1964, the calendar now attracts the world’s very best photographers and most famous subjects.
It is highly exclusive, with only a limited number produced each year. The annual release makes headlines all around the world.
Last year, the calendar departed from its usual catalogue of models to instead feature women famous for doing things other than being professionally beautiful.
Tennis great Serena Williams was featured with her back to the camera, muscles rippling and wearing only black underpants. Comedian Amy Schumer was shot by photographer Annie Leibovitz, sitting on a stool, takeaway coffee cup in hand with (horror!) stomach rolls.
This year, the calendar features Hollywood actresses who are (a) wearing clothes and (b) not wearing make-up.
These aren’t 22-years-old starlets with lineless foreheads either. The ages of the women, shot by photographer Peter Lindberg, range from 28 all the way through to 71. They include Julianne Moore, Robin Wright, Helen Mirren and Australian Nicole Kidman.
None of the shots have been digitally enhanced or edited.
As women, we know how we’re meant to react to media stories like this: Make-up free! No retouching! Actual wrinkles! Famous ladies wearing cardigans not thongs!
It’s oh so edgy and oh so refreshing and oh so progressive … and we’re oh so pitifully grateful for this tiny tid-bit the fashion industry and the corporate world have decided to throw us. It’s a rare tasty little morsel of less-than-perfect for the so-called ‘real women’.
Except … most women I know aren’t reacting like that anymore.
Photos of extremely beautiful people looking extremely beautiful despite the absence of the usual photoshopping efforts isn’t new or original. In fact it’s a little tired.
Similarly, the inclusion of a few token women who are bigger than a size eight doesn’t make an advertising campaign ‘brave’ or even notable these days. None of this is ground breaking stuff.
The Pirelli brand promises “pioneering innovation to stay ahead of the game” and yet the “novel” element of this year’s calendar isn’t novel at all.
While the photography itself is undoubtedly exceptional, the absence of Photoshop and make-up is stuff we’ve all seen before.
But friends, the fact we’ve seen this all before is what makes it exciting.
This dull humdrum of a reaction we’re experiencing now marks the beginnings of what women have been waiting for. This is the beginning of what we’ve been asking for. It’s the beginning of what we’ve been fighting for. It’s the beginning of making this stuff normal.
We want images of famous women without make-up to be so ordinary that they’re no longer noteworthy. We want photos of older women, of women with blemishes, of women with wrinkles, of women with rolls, of women with disabilities and of women with different coloured skin to become deathly dull.
The fact that we’re starting to become bored with this stuff is actually a good thing. It means we’re making some progress.
Of course, this calendar and similar marketing by other brands will sometimes feel like token efforts to get attention.
The women in this year’s Pirelli calendar, for example, all have similar delicate and very slim bodies. You can imagine the conversation that was had at Pirelli: “Oh no, we did bigger girls last year, we need to do something different if we’re going to make a splash”.
It feels like a token effort because it is. Yet, it is through those token efforts — through those often less-than-noble-token-efforts — that real change is affected.
There is an awfully, awfully long way to go when it comes to the stereotypes and expectations around women’s bodies. But change starts when the things we desire are no longer novel or interesting or exciting.
Change begins with boredom.
Jamila Rizvi is a writer, presenter and news.com.au columnist. You can follow her on Facebook and Twitter.