Monday, February 2, 2009

Fashion and entertainment


So for quite some time it has bothered me the way women are portrayed in any movie or TV show that includes fashion.

A great example is the film The Devil Wears Prada. In that film we are to believe that Andi is a horrible girlfriend and friend because of her commitment to her job. Now her boyfriend is a chef, and at least one of her friends works in a gallery. Both of these careers are time consuming. Working as a sous chef means long hours, and if the head chef becomes ill and you are given a chance to prep your own menu nothing, and I mean nothing is going to stop you.

What Prada wants you to believe is that because Andi works in fashion her job must not be as important as the jobs her friends have. The film has no problem with her leaving a career building job for a boyfriend who is moving out of the city to pursue his career. Because, you see, he is doing something important while fashion is something that just isn't.

Ugly Betty is another great example, any time Betty succeeds in her career she must pay for it in her personal life.

Shows like this aggravate me to the point of yelling at the screen. No other career for women gets treated so badly by the media as fashion. Unless you are a model, which the media gods are fine with, if you are a woman in fashion you are either a tart, see Just Shoot Me, or a bitch, see Prada, Ugly Betty, even Funny Face shows that the editor of a fashion magazine can't be a woman and have a personal life.

So if you are in fashion, don't be afraid to actually work at it. Don't look at movies and television for role models, they just don't exist.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

lets get this out of the way


Star Foreman is a professional freelance photographer in Los Angeles, CA with an emphasis on editorial and fashion photography. She holds a BA in photography from the Art Center College of Design. She is available for editorial, advertising, and commercial shoots.