Dr. Whiddon Introduction to Classical Rhetoric 4 December 2014 “Ironic Sexism” A Rhetorical Analysis of American Apparel’s “Meet ____” Campaign “And You Thought Abercrombie & Fitch Was Pushing It?” is the question posed by Jaime Wolf, in the title of his 2006 feature on American Apparel CEO, Dov Charney. This extensive feature labeled Charney as a “new-age Hugh Hefner,” a challenger of “conventional beauty standards,” and a pornographic film fanatic (J. Wolf). Wolf’s piece was just the beginning of the commentary, articles, and essays, which would over the next eight years, plague and bolster the American Apparel clothing brand. American Apparel was conceived in 1989, during Charney’s second year at Tufts University. Charney’s brand was inspired by “American commodity manufacturing” or “clothing items and goods that defy fashion…and become iconic: Levi’s 501’s, Sperry Top-Sider deck shoes,” and the “free love” of the 1970s (J. Wolf). Charney combined his notions of “American commodity manufacturing” and “free love,” with a socially conscious image broadcasted through the company’s “Made in USA” slogan, use of “vertical integration,” and political activism, and ultimately created a company with the image of a “Gap with a social conscience” (J. Wolf). In order to create Dov Charney’s “iconic” and “sexual utopia,” along with selling clothing, American Apparel has relied heavily on advertising campaigns. Throughout American Apparel’s twentyfive years of existence, the company has ran clothing campaigns supporting same-sex marriage (“Legalize Gay”) and immigration reform (“Legalize LA”). American Apparel’s most iconic and controversial advertising campaign, “Meet ____,” came into fruition in the early 21st century and continues into the 2010s. These advertisements can be seen in a multitude of places: from catalogs and magazines to billboards and online. According to American Apparel’s website, this “advertising campaign has become synonymous with [their] brand name” (“Our Ads”). These advertisements typically consist of an image with varying amounts of text off to the side or below the image. The image contains female models, who are typically American Apparel employees or friends of American Apparel employees. The models are posing in a certain way, which aims to draw attention to the clothing item being advertised. The text near the image is comprised of information about the model. The text usually describes the model’s career, interests, reasons why the model wanted to be in whatever pose they are holding for the image, location, and the name of the clothing item. The advertisements are simple, nostalgic, and pornographic. Although American Apparel feels the “Meet _____” advertisements represent the company well and “celebrate women, diversity, healthy body image and female empowerment,” the company has consistently been challenged on the true message being represented in the advertisements (Sherman). American Apparel’s “Meet ____” campaign has been successful in fostering an aesthetic. According to Molly Lambert, a writer for Grantland, the aesthetic these advertisements showcase are of “an indiestyled version of fellow 2000s phenomenon Girls Gone Wild.” Through these models, the advertisements present amateur porn and communicate the idea that “the girl next door” is “now indistinguishable from a porn star” (Lambert). The major label placed on the “American Apparel aesthetic” is “ironic sexism.” “Ironic sexism” is typically perpetuated when “people who should ‘know better’—progressive people with possible college degrees” who “might even identify as feminists” are sexist (Wallace). From photographers like Terry Richardson and Tyler Shields to publications such as Vice magazine, this “American Apparel aesthetic” is consistently imitated and relied on as a positive way to represent women. American Apparel’s claim of a socially conscious image has also been offset by the company’s reputation for sexual harassment. American Apparel’s founder and CEO, Dov Charney was fired this year due to the amount of sexual harassment cases against him, which have been building since the beginning of the 2000s. American Apparel’s constant controversy and influential aesthetic can be strongly attributed to the company’s “Meet _____” campaign. This analysis of American Apparel’s “Meet ____” campaign argues that although American Apparel creates a rhetorically effective campaign through the use of kairos and pathos-based appeals, the “Meet ____” campaign is ultimately a new and dangerous form of sexist advertising. American Apparel has a massive amount of “Meet ____” advertisements, but in order to determine the rhetorical effectiveness of American Apparel’s advertising campaign, a careful walkthrough of four “Meet ____” advertisements will be presented. The advertisements “Meet Trudy” (Figure A1), “Meet Amy” (Figure A2), “Meet Lauren Phoenix” (Figure A3), and “Meet Maks” (Figure A4) will be used. The company’s use of kairos in relation to these advertisements will be analyzed. The analysis of how the advertisements are positioned within a cultural context will lead into a discussion of American Apparel’s use of connotative language and nostalgia to appeal to the company’s audience. After determining the success of American Apparel’s “rhetorical moves,” the “American Apparel aesthetic” will be examined to determine how the aesthetic plays into common sexist advertising tropes, while forming a new and imitated trope. In order to appeal to the demographic of young, urban, and educated “hipsters,” American Apparel has consistently “nodded,” within their “Meet ____” campaign, to the kairos created within other advertising campaigns during the twenty-first century. In 2004, the “Dove® Campaign for Real Beauty” was created after a study commissioned by Dove, titled “The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report,” “proved the hypothesis that the definition of beauty had become limiting and unattainable” (“The Dove® Campaign”). According to Dove, the company’s campaign “started a global conversation about the need for a wider definition of beauty,” by challenging “beauty stereotypes” and allowing women to discuss their perspectives on beauty (“The Dove® Campaign”). The second phase of “The Dove® Campaign for Real Beauty” had advertisements, which featured “six real women with real bodies and real curves” and resulted in “thousands of women” using Dove’s site (campaignforrealbauty.com) to discuss “real beauty” (“The Dove® Campaign”). Throughout the campaigns three phases and six years of existence, Dove has aimed to promote awareness and start an enduring conversation about the “unrealistic” images of women in advertisements. “The Dove® Campaign for Real Beauty” can be classified as a purveyor of or at least a participant in the creation of a cultural awareness for “real beauty” in advertisements, which Dov Charney would tie his company’s vision into. When taking a brief glance at any American Apparel “Meet ____” advertisement, the model will typically be the first element of the advertisement that catches one’s eye. Jaime Wolf describes American Apparel’s advertising as embracing “the notion of ‘real’ advertising.” The models photographed for American Apparel advertisements are “young ethnic and mixed-race men and women with asymmetrical features, imperfect bodies, blemished skin and visible sweat stains on the clothes they are modeling” (J. Wolf). In the four “Meet ____” advertisements chosen for this analysis (Fig. A1, A2, A3, A4), there are people of color and people of varying shapes and sizes. As Charney has requested, the four advertisements also have an “un-airbrushed aesthetic” (J. Wolf). The women chosen for the “Meet ____” advertisements are used to showcase how American Apparel does not have one strict definition of beauty. American Apparel’s incorporation of “real beauty” plays on the ideas exhibited in the Dove Campaign. Although the “Meet ___” campaign, unlike “The Dove® Campaign for Real Beauty,” uses sexualized imagery in their effort to showcase “real beauty” to their audience. Charney, a business owner who “understands the way that political gestures and activism have become yoked to certain modes of consumerism,” intentionally chooses to rely on the context created by “The Dove® Campaign for Real Beauty” to sell his company’s products (J. Wolf). Essentially, the “Meet ____” advertisements are “latching onto” a cultural moment. This tactic works due to American Apparel’s demographic, as described by Charney, being that of “Young Metropolitan Adults” (J. Wolf). As young and educated “hipsters,” these clients will not only be aware of “The Dove® Campaign for Real Beauty,” but are also likely to have or claim to have a deeper understanding of how advertisements “sell values, images, and concepts of love, sexuality, success, and normalcy” and “tell us who we are and who we should be” (Jhally, Sut, Kilbourne, & Rabinovitz). The “Meet ____” campaign will be seen as a positive campaign by this demographic, due to the advertisements appearance of furthering a worthy and favorable notion of “real beauty.” American Apparel not only relies on understanding “rhetorical time” to entice its demographic, but also incorporates two pathos-based appeals, which leave a lasting impression on their audience. American Apparel’s “Meet _____” advertisements come across more as a DeVry University or ITT Tech commercial, rather than a clothing advertisement. This challenging of what clothing advertisements typically present the viewer is all done within the text on a “Meet ____” advertisement. As previously mentioned the text in the “Meet ____” advertisements presents information about the model in the image. The diction used by American Apparel on “Meet ____” advertisements is deliberate. American Apparel’s language consists of words which at least to the company’s demographic, can be classified as “God terms.” In order to address and understand how the “Meet ____” campaign uses diction, it is best to first discuss themes within the text and then use specific examples. When examining the four chosen advertisements a common pattern occurs. The company starts off their text with the word “meet,” which is followed by the models name. After introducing the viewer to the model, the text proceeds to discuss the model’s race or ethnicity and geographic location. The rest of the paragraph describes the models interests, education, and occupation. The text may also reveal if the model is an American Apparel employee or a close friend or relative of an American Apparel employee. In the “Meet Trudy” advertisement (Figure A1), Trudy is described as a “St. Louis native,” who has been “traveling for the company since 2009 as a store consultant,” and enjoys “vintage buying as well as singing and dancing to 90’s R&B” (Unisex Oversized Fisherman Turtleneck). Amy’s advertisement (Figure A2) consists of text which describes her as “of Okinawan, Italian, Irish and Swedish descent,” a nursing student, and discusses how “in high school…she was a track and volleyball star,” but “took up modeling when she met a photographer on campus” (Spandex High-Waist Hot Short). Amy “secretly likes to freestyle rap, and constantly keeps herself busy by working out and riding her longboard” (Spandex High-Waist Hot Short). The brief description in the “Meet Lauren Phoenix” advertisement (Figure A3) moves a bit away from the pattern and describes Phoenix as a “150 lbs. of magic. Actress. Director. Look her up on Google” (Stripe Knee-High Sock). Maks advertisement (Figure A4) contains the most holistic narrative out of the four advertisements. Maks is described as “a merchandiser who has been with American Apparel since 2010” (High Waist Jean). She was ” “born in…the capital of Bangladesh” and “at age four, her family made a life changing move to Marina Del Rey, California,” where “upon entering high school” she “ultimately distanced herself from Islamic traditions” (High Waist Jean). According to the text, “Maks unreservedly embraced this photo shoot,” and “she doesn’t feel the need to identify herself as American or Bangladeshi and is not content to fit her life into anyone else’s conventional narrative,” and “that’s what makes her essential to the mosaic that is Los Angeles, and unequivocally, a distinct figure in the ever expanding American Apparel family” (High Waist Jean). The “Meet ____” campaign not only attempts to challenge beauty standards, but also the norm of women in advertisements as only “objects” and “things” being used to sell products. The text forms a narrative, which aims to place the model as not just an object, but as an integral part of American Apparel’s company culture. Through these text descriptions, words such as consent and enjoyment, in relation to the provocative poses, and words such as cool and interesting in relation to the model’s hobbies and employment, are conjured to the viewers. These terms and words within the context presented by the advertisements are important to American Apparel’s “Young Metropolitan Adults.” These “God terms” connect to and represent the “Young Metropolitan Adults” ideals. After the “Meet ____” text has successfully enticed the viewer and gained the viewer’s trust, American Apparel makes sure the connotative text is strongly connected with the company. At the end of the text a reference is made to the clothing item the model is wearing. There are also phrases floating around the advertisements such as “Made in USA--Sweatshop Free,” “Sweatshop Free—Brand-Free Clothes,” and “That’s American Apparel.” These phrases aim to be the final push in the viewer purchasing the product. The viewer has seen an advertisement, which through the text, presents the company as focused on intelligent women with interesting stories, who are on some level exhibiting sexual agency by voluntarily posing for these advertisements. The ideals presented by the “Meet ____” advertisements are what American Apparel’s demographic strongly approve of and wish themselves to be represented as. “Hipster” tendencies are drawn upon to “move” American Apparel’s audience with the “Meet ____” campaign’s usage of nostalgic and romanticized views, within their images. Like American Apparel factories, American Apparel retail stores, and Charney’s house and apartment, the “Meet ____” advertisements can be described as “colorful” and retro-themed” (J. Wolf). Charney’s entire existence appears to be an ode to the 1970s and 1980s. Charney’s home contains “vintage 1970’s couches” and his desk contains “copies of Playboy from the 1980’s, their pages carefully annotated and tabbed with colored stickers denoting their depiction of socks, pants, T-shirts, electronics, car designs and other markers of style from the period” (J. Wolf). The “Meet ____” advertisements are aimed to be representative of the time period when Charney “first became aware of style and how it was expressed” (J. Wolf). Charney’s romanticized view of the past appeals greatly to American Apparel’s audience of “hipsters.” According to Rebecca Kamm, “Hipsterism is, after all, the practice of dredging up the past, the deeply non-ironic, and repurposing it for novel fun.” The “Meet ___” advertisements aim to have all the fun and humor of the 1970s and 1980s without the issues of the time period. As seen by Charney’s previously noted extensive analysis of Playboy magazines, there is a strong intent for the women in the “Meet ____” advertisements to appear like the images on 1970s and 1980s erotic magazine covers, along with other erotic calendars and photography of that time. The sexual nostalgia in the “Meet ____” advertisements not only appeals to American Apparel’s demographic because of the “hipster” repurposing, but also because the advertisements, along with Charney represent a cultural shift. According to Jaime Wolf, “Charney's grasp of various erotic and political energies currently at loose in the culture and his relationship to contemporary American sexuality are reminiscent of Hugh Hefner in the early days of Playboy.” Like Hefner, Charney aims “to expand the definition of sexiness,” even if the expansion relies on the usage of an old definition of the term (J. Wolf). Through American Apparel, Charney “wants to bring back the freedom of the Sixties and Seventies” and he “hopes to help rein in the excessive regulation imposed on contemporary American society” (Merrick). According to Alberto Chehebar, Charney wants American Apparel “to serve as a model for a free society” based around the “free love” exhibited in the 1970s (qtd in Merrick). The “Meet ____” campaign is a part of this mission and in the opinion of Charney, the advertisements nostalgic and sexual energy appeals to the “Young Metropolitan Adults” (J. Wolf). These “first-movers of culture,” have embraced “a sexualized world” (J. Wolf). Charney sees the once upon a time skeptical and defining generation of the baby boomers, in the “Young Metropolitan Adults.” Like Charney, this young demographic wants to push boundaries and therefore Charney’s brash, sexual nostalgia is welcomed. As the creation of Charney’s fantasies and his willingness to connect to a cultural moment, the “Meet ____” campaign has succeeded in enticing American Apparel a loyal and young, “hipster” demographic through the use of kairos, connotative language, and nostalgia. Although the rhetorical success of the advertisements is positive for American Apparel, this “Meet ____” campaign creates at the least, an awkward situation for viewers, and at the most, a dangerous situation for society. The “Meet ___” campaign continues to reinforce common sexist advertising tropes and creates new sexist advertising tropes. In the fourth installment of her documentary series, Killing Us Softly, Jean Kilbourne points out the patterns she saw in advertisements, which she described as a “statement about what it meant to be a woman in American culture” (Jhally et al.). The sexist advertising tropes, which will be discussed in relation to the “Meet ____” campaign, have come from Kilbourne’s forty years of examining advertising. Although the “Meet ____” campaign attempts to not dehumanize the models through providing background information, the images used in the advertisements play into common sexist tropes and ultimately are intended to “sell us on shopping.” Within the four advertisements, American Apparel presents a common objectified view of women. According to Kilbourne, advertisers objectify women by only focusing on one part of a woman’s body in an advertisement. The “Meet Maks” advertisement (Figure A4) is supposed to be selling the jeans Maks is wearing, but this notion is lost by the image only focusing on the upper part of Maks’ body. The image presented pushes the focus of the viewer even further by placing the phrase “Made in Bangladesh” on Maks’ chest. The advertisement demanding the viewers’ attention towards Maks’ nude upper body and not the jeans being sold or even the extensive text underneath the image, strongly contributes to the objectification of Maks. In the “Meet Lauren Phoenix” advertisement (Figure A3), part of the advertisement uses three images which focus on the nude upper body of Phoenix. The advertisement is selling socks, but out of the four images presented, only one ever attempts to send this message to the viewer. The “Meet Amy” advertisement (Figure A2) aims to sell high-waist shorts, but does so by drawing attention to Amy’s crotch. In the “Meet Trudy” advertisement (Figure A1), a unisex turtleneck is being advertised, but the image draws more attention to Trudy’s nude lower body than the turtleneck. Outside of the Phoenix advertisement (Figure A3), the other three models are shown in “provocative” poses, but are completely passive. This passiveness combined with the focus on nudity, lends itself to the objectification of the women. One could claim by using images in which the model is only wearing the piece of clothing being advertised, a stronger connection is created between the audience and the item. While this may be true, this decision also causes the viewer to typically focus on the nude parts of the image and ultimately lean more towards participating in objectification of the women, rather than ever focusing on the product. Another disconcerting component of the “Meet ____” advertisements is the “trivialization of sex” (Jhally et al.). This component is communicated through the images presented and the company’s ultimate goal of using the images to sell a product. The “trivialization of sex” is most apparent in the “Meet Lauren Phoenix” advertisement (Figure A3). The three images of Phoenix on the side are aimed to show the viewers the feelings of euphoria related to sex. As shown by the slogan “Safe to Say She Loves Her Socks,” the viewer is supposed to connect Phoenix’s sexual euphoria to the American Apparel socks. The advertisement showcases a “juvenile approach to sex,” which leaves the viewer in an awkward position and the model as, once again, an object. In all of the “Meet ____” advertisements, the notion of sex is used to sell American Apparel products. Linking sex to products or “sexualizing products” is a common and dangerous form of trivializing sex used in advertisements. In her book titled The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women, Naomi Wolf constantly uses the words “Iron Maiden.” The term “Iron Maiden” is used in reference to beauty; as Naomi Wolf attempts to draw a comparison between the Iron Maiden and beauty standards. The Iron Maiden, was a torture device “that enclosed its victims in a spike-lined painted box with a woman’s image” (Jacobson & Mazur 75). According to Naomi Wolf, contemporary beauty ideals, like the Iron Maiden, “enforce conformity to a single, rigid shape” (qtd. in Jacobson & Mazur 75). In their book, Marketing Madness, released in 1995, Michael F. Jacobson and Laurie Ann Mazur define the contemporary “Iron Maiden” for beauty. The “Iron Maiden,” which is used in advertisements to sell “sexual discontent,” consists of an unattainable standard of beauty: a perfectly symmetrical body without blemishes or imperfections (Jacobson & Mazur 75). Advertisements constantly encouraging the comparing of women to the “Iron Maiden,” leaves consumers’ unsatisfied with themselves and others and increases consumers’ chances of buying the advertised products in an attempt to no longer be “discontent.” According to Naomi Wolf, “in every generation, advertisers issue a new paradigm of perfection” (qtd. in Jacobson & Mazur 75). Although the “Meet ____” campaign advertisements do not fall into the old “Iron Maiden” categories, the company does create a new “Iron Maiden.” This new “Iron Maiden,” which can also be described as the “American Apparel Aesthetic,” is all “about Dov Charney’s sexuality” (Lambert). American Apparel hires young and beautiful women, who live up to “Dov’s own personal fetishes, which were fed from a diet of ’70s and ’80s porn mags” (Lambert). Charney does not allow his female models or female employees to have a physical appearance, which does not appeal to his “taste.” Charney draws “a hard line” at makeup, “plucked and trimmed eyebrows,” short hair, and tattoos or piercings (J. Wolf). As stated by Molly Lambert: the American Apparel advertisements present “a never-ending chorus line of fresh-faced young international ingénue,” who are “always young and gorgeous, skinny but often with T&A, and always with the American Apparel trademark look of natural makeup and long hair…in poses demonstrating their flexibility and exposing their flesh.” Charney is inflexible with his “taste” and is “known for coming into random stores and firing” female employees “who weren’t up to his exacting physical standards on the spot” (Lambert). According to Lambert, female employees and models accepted Charney’s treatment based on the idea that “working there put them in the running to be in the brand’s series of successful porno-styled print ads” and “it meant a shot at being confirmed as publicly desirable by the then–in vogue retail brand.” Allan Mayer, the co-chairman of the American Apparel board recalls Charney’s response to his questioning of Charney’s “taste” and treatment as defensive (Merrick). Charney “would accuse [Mayer] of being a prude and a puritan” and “indulging in some form of sexual shaming” (Merrick). The images of women in the “Meet ____” advertisements are established around Charney’s “Iron Maiden” and viewers who accept and view the advertisements as a positive and correct way to present women are ultimately contributing to a new “Iron Maiden” for the early 21st century and 2010s. On top of the already overwhelmingly negative description of the “American Apparel Aesthetic,” the aesthetic in these advertisements has also been described as “ironic sexism.” “Enlightened” individuals participate in “ironic sexism” when they “call their female friends sluts and skanks - but do it with irony,” by following the insult with the phrase “I was joking!” (Kamm). “Ironic sexism” relies “on the assumption that the person…making the joke is a Really Good Person who would never actually believe such horrible things, so isn’t it hilarious that they’d pretend they do” (Kamm). “Classic” or “sincere” sexism is the product of ignorance, aggression, and hatred. The major issue with the “American Apparel aesthetics” use of “ironic sexism” is the company’s advertisements present the notion that “true” misogyny is now nonexistent. According to Rebecca Kamm, “ironic sexism,” like “hipsterism” dredges up the past and “repurposes” the past “for novel fun.” “Ironic sexism” does not aim to offer a legitimate critic of misogyny. Through the “American Apparel aesthetic,” sexism is deemed a horse and buggy or a relic of the past, which can be joked about. American Apparel may claim they are making a statement by intentionally producing advertisements that exemplify the “male gaze,” but the advertisements truly seem like an empty, money-grabbing vessel. Despite the fact that these advertisements have been heavily criticized and parodied, there are still a massive amount of emulators of the “American Apparel aesthetic.” This new “Iron Maiden” has become pervasive to the point “where professional purveyors of purely sexual imagery are taking their cues” from American Apparel advertisements (J. Wolf). In 2006, a porn industry trade magazine, Adult Video News, labeled American Apparel “as one of the finest softcore” businesses’ “going these days” (J. Wolf). Without a doubt, the “Meet ____” campaign is an example of rhetorically effective advertising. American Apparel has created, what at first may be viewed as a progressive brand, through the simple and pornographic “Meet ____” advertisements. At best, Charney can be described as a savvy business owner who figured out how to incorporate the cultural phenomenon of “real beauty” within his advertisements. American Apparel takes advantage of its viewers’ processing ability, by offering advertisements, which only processed through the viewer’s “peripheral” or uncritical route rather than the “central” or critical route, appear to be as positive and philanthropic as “The Dove® Campaign for Real Beauty.” American Apparel’s “Meet ____” advertisements have taken the notion of positivity exhibited in “real beauty” campaigns one step further by displaying the narrative of the models within the advertisements. Charney’s unfiltered love of 1970s and 1980s porn and fashion has enticed American Apparel’s “hipster” audience, who are searching for ways to push the boundaries of cultural liberalism. Although a brilliant marketing plan, the “Meet ____” advertisements showcase the dark-side of philanthropic companies. According to Charney, he is using the images in the “Meet ____” advertisements as “a salute to contemporary adult and sexual freedom” (Dunne). Charney “believes he represents a very authentic and honest sexuality that middle-class America just can’t accept” (Merrick). This message becomes questionable when recognizing how the “Meet ____” advertisements have continuously used sexist advertising methods, which have existed for over forty years and have even developed new sexist advertising methods. Even though advertisements containing sexism are already dangerous, the “Meet ____” campaign pushes this danger a step further by showcasing these tropes under the guise of empowerment. The true message communicated by the “American Apparel aesthetic” appears be how to effectively co-opt the “feminist idea that women have the right to display their own bodies and profit off of them,” while ignoring the “reality that the person really getting rich off these images and the clothes they sold was Dov Charney” (Lambert). These advertisements encourage the presentation of “oneself in the most clichéd and stereotypical way possible as a kind of liberation” (Jhally et al.). Ultimately, the criticism of the “Meet ____” campaign is not a call for censorship towards nudity or sex within advertisements, but rather a call against those in power, in this case Charney, convincing others of the existence of a post-sexist landscape, along with the philanthropic claims of a company making the objectification in advertisements like these, easier to swallow. Works Cited Dunne, Carey. "The Design Legacy Of Ousted American Apparel CEO Dov Charney." Co.Design. N.p., 20 June 2014. Web. 24 Oct. 2014. <http://www.fastcodesign.com/3032215/the-design-legacy-of-ousted-american-apparelceo-dov-charney>. High Waist Jean. The Huffington Post. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/03/10/topless-muslim-maks-american-apparelmade-in-bangladesh-advert-nsfw-picture_n_4933223.html>. 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Bitch Media. N.p., 1 Nov. 2012. Web. 24 Oct. 2014. <http://bitchmagazine.org/post/hipster-sexism-is-sexist-feministmagazine-irony-culture-racism-sexism>. Wolf, Jaime. "And You Thought Abercrombie & Fitch Was Pushing It?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 22 Apr. 2006. Web. 11 Nov. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/magazine/23apparel.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&>. Appendix A “Meet ____” Advertisements Figure 1: “Meet Trudy” Figure 2: “Meet Amy” Figure 3: “Meet Lauren Phoenix” Figure 4: “Meet Maks”