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The Vogue Point of View, Translated - The LAMP

The Vogue Point of View, Translated

By June 24, 2010 News No Comments
Take a look at this page from the July 2010 issue of Vogue:
And now let’s take it apart:


  • “I am woman. Hear me roar.”


    • Reference to women’s lib anthem: Check.


  • “Hear me issue stock-purchase orders from the Wall Street trading floor.”


    • According to Federal Bureau of Labor statistics from last year, just 29% of American traders were women. While the growth of women in the financial services industry is not to be mocked, there is still a long way to go. Are the only roaring women the ones who work in a male-dominated industry, and are they roaring only because they are doing a job which has traditionally been done by men? I think not.


  • “I am woman; I am not girl. I do not emulate the pop-burlesque fashion stylings of Ke$ha or Katy Perry.”


    • Just a few lines in, we’re already talking about what a woman is not. Plus, Katy Perry’s style was already celebrated in June’s Teen Vogue, and Ke$ha was featured in Teen Vogue‘s May music issue. In a few years, Big Girl Vogue will tell former Teen Vogue readers that the “Katy and Ke$ha are awesome!” thing was all a joke.


  • “I do not aspire to passe morning-after chic, with bird’s-nest hair and shredded leather leggings. No.”


    • Vogue suggests you try this look instead.


  • “Of Lana Turner and Barbara Stanwyck–and Lena Horne–I sing.”


    • You, the same magazine whose French edition did a photo shoot of Lara Stone in blackface; you, the same magazine that ran a questionable cover of LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen; you, with a notorious tendency to debut international editions with white girls at the cover’s focal point–you sing of Lena Horne? Not to mention that a search for Lana Turner on vogue.com turned up just 2 results, and 1 for Barbara Stanwyck. Sure, I hear you singing.


  • “(Have you felt the smooth, snug tug of fine leather gloves being pulled on? Have you considered the rebellion, the nonconformity, inherent today in a Mamie Eisenhower knit suit? Have you worn a crinoline lately?)”


    • So–we can wear leather gloves but not leather leggings? And you ask the Woman Who Roars if she knows anything of rebellion? I’m also not sure Vogue gets to send a shout-out crinoline in the same space where they criticize burlesque-inspired fashion.


  • “Reader, if you’re older than fourteen, fashion for fall 2010 offers more wearable options than it has in eons.”


    • Yes, Vogue is talking to you, teens who should not be reading Teen Vogue! The wearable fashions–nay, “2010 Fall Essentials”–recommended by Vogue include a $250 Michael Kors belt, a $380 sweater by Inhabit and a Cynthia Rowley feather tutu for $410. In fairness, I suppose they did say ‘wearable,’ not ‘affordable.’ Though that still doesn’t explain the feather tutu.


  • “Skirts fall below mid-thigh.”


    • In the fall fashion collections? You don’t say!


  • “Designers are giving us dead-cool-but-still-practical streetwear uniforms for work or school.”


    • See: feather tutu; sweater that costs more than half of what the average family of 5 spent on groceries each month as of 2009.


  • “Can we get an ‘Amen’ up in here?”


    • In a word: No.


    –Emily Long

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