Boycott American Apparel and its Best Butt Contest

Ewww. Just, ewww.

American Apparel has introduced a "best bottom contest" on their website. Contestants submit photos of their American Apparel-(barely)clad asses for the chance to become official "butt models," while simultaneously creating for AA its newest low-cost, high-exploitation advertising campaign. I'm not going to provide a link to the site because I refuse to make it easier for them to get traffic, but feel free to Google it if: a.) you're a feminist seeking masochistic revulsion or b.) you get off on hyper-sexual disembodied butts arranged in neat 5 X 6 grids.

Now, American Apparel is not technically a porn peddler -- it purports to sell clothing. But American Apparel's marketing machine doesn't sell clothes; it sells the lack thereof. It exploits human bodies, mostly young female bodies, posed sex-kitten-like, lips pouted, eyes disturbingly vacant, ass or crotch thrust outward, with lots of exposed skin photographed way too close-up.

Though the butt contest invites both men and women to model American Apparel underwear, it has emphasized female submissions, and the resultant two sets of photos couldn't be more different. The mens' prominently feature the merchandise, in run-of-the-mill underwear ad style. Meanwhile, the focus in the women's photos is on the dearth of coverage provided by their undergarments --  the women's butts ARE the merchandise. As of this writing, there have been 88 men's submissions and 1,103 women's. Predictably, because men aren't taught to publicly flaunt their sexuality for the world's consumption.

Oh, did I mention that you can rate the butts? (Click on the charmingly tongue-in-cheek "Start Scoring" button to jump right in.) Because sexual empowerment is all about measuring your worth by other people's standards.

I realize countless companies lean on the "sex sells" strategy, but American Apparel regularly goes to an extreme that crosses into misogyny. Take the NYC billboard that implied that the pictured model was sexually available to the entire city, or the extreme close-up crotch shots of "real girls," or the retro child porn-style ads that attempt to convey the models' innocent, Lolita-like sexuality. (Links are NSFW.)

Or take the behavior of AA's vile founder and CEO, Dov Charney, who's had numerous sexual harassment suits filed against him by former employees, and who admitted that he often refers to women around the office as "sluts." He runs around work in his underwear under the pretense that he's an AA fit model, received oral sex and masturbated in front of a JANE reporter, and reportedly told another journalist that "women initiate most domestic violence."

I discovered all this dirt three years ago following a fit of enraged Googling after walking past a soon-to-be-opened American Apparel storefront featuring a floor-to-ceiling photograph of a nearly naked young woman, giant bethonged butt thrust out toward the street. The store happened to face Austin's University of Texas campus. It was as if AA were taunting, "Silly university. Who needs brains when you have a giant two-foot-tall ass?" That day, I began my own personal American Apparel boycott. For three years, I have not stepped into an American Apparel store, nor have I spent a penny on their merchandise.

So I am thrilled that Hardy Girls Healthy Women has organized their own "girlcott" of American Apparel, as well as a petition that calls for American Apparel to stop degrading and objectifying women in their advertising. The AntiPorn Activist Network has also launched a really cool guerrilla-style protest.

If we really want to effect change, we need to put our money where our mouths are. Join the girlcott and tell AA, in no uncertain terms: We're not buying what you're selling.

At the very least, we might reduce the number of shiny metallic leggings on the streets.

Photo: Infomatique