According to Jezebel, Pirelli is a tire company that produces a prestigious calendar that cannot be bought, but is handed out to clients and celebrities. This year it is almost as if those behind the calendar think that people get turned on by seeing women in dangerous, dirty, uncomfortable, and disgusting sitations. Oh, and then there’s the gang rape simulation.
In addition to that, it features an image with a woman getting her hand amputated with a chainsaw; the appropriation of the “primitive” and the exploitation of a (presmably not fake, but could be fake) indigenous population; the posing of models with dead animals; simulated animal attacks; the by-now-yawn-inducing creepy-crawly-on-your-face pose; naked women covered in filth; and more that I cannot even begin to describe.
Images after the jump. They are not safe for work. Further, some of the images may be upsetting to someone who is sensitive to images of sexual assault:
19 Comments
WTF? Why would I want this stuff on my wall?
what the FUCK. this is some kind of bizarro world nightmare of bad taste.
Uhm…WTF. Seriously, this doesn’t even hold any artistic or aesthetic value (not that such a pathetic concept would anyway). Not to mention it’s exploitative in nearly every sense of the word.
How *anyone* can find these pictures attractive in any way is beyond me…
Hand amputated? Did it say that somewhere? She’s holding the wood. I’d see gang rape perhaps if her panties were off and she was on the ground but it looks more like cannibalism/sacrifice/severe punishment. Maybe this makes sense to Italians. If you think this is bad don’t look at what some Japanese videos cater to.
This blog is going to have a collective aneurysm if you start covering pornography, whatever social class it belongs to.
“Hand amputated? Did it say that somewhere?”
There appears to be red fluid splattering in the air and all over the wood. I find it . . . truly horrific.
So… did they get Dario Argento to be artistic director, or what? O__o;
Tim, no, it doesn’t make much more sense here in italy…
Ok, we have our Dolce and Gabbana ads, but this is completely out of mind… O_o
M
While I find the images sickening, I can’t help but wonder who’s to blame - the pervert producers and photographers, or the women who willingly participate for money (enforcing the message that this is normal and women don’t mind being put into these poses by men [with money])?
Maybe I’m missing the point. Maybe I should be blaming the photographer. But I’d have to have lost a pretty big chunk of my dignity myself before I let someone photograph me getting theoretically gang-banged.
Fifa:
I would blame the photographer. From what I’ve heard, the Pirelli calendar itself is considered to be very prestigious in the modelling world, and most models consider posing in it to be an achievement. I would say the photographer is the one who is exploiting these models. While I’m not sure of how the models themselves feel about the shoot, I’m pretty sure they really wouldn’t have much control over what the photographer wants to shoot, lest they jeopardize their careers. So yes, the photographer is entirely to blame.
And honestly, who the fuck in their right mind would find that oiled-up gang rape shoot sexy?
So…many…things…wrong with this.
Looking back at my last comment, I guess maybe the photographer may not have had total control over the creative concept of this shoot. As I am kinda clueless in this respect, I would blame whoever had control over the concept of this shoot. But you get the idea. The blame goes to whoever was in control of the concept of the shoot, and that’s definitely not the models.
Yeah…no more sleepless posting for me…
If you look closely (not that I think anyone would want to) you can see that her hand is intact. It looks like it’s missing because of the little glove things she’s wearing. It’s not clear where the blood spray is coming from.
Other than that… this is pretty gross stuff, at least without any contextual information. Definitely the stuff of nightmares. I have to admit to being curious about the “help” word balloon in the first photo. It makes it almost cartoonish(?). Not sure if it’s intended to be humor.
Any idea what the distribution is on these? Do they go out to millions of customers or hundreds of big-shot customers?
The “blood” spray is saw dust. Notice the red light?
Photos 1,2 and 7 look horribly photoshopped. A monochrome fairy in the corner?
This series isn’t so strange, it was foreshadowed by posts right here on SI.
http://contexts.org/socimages/2008/11/18/this-is-fascinating-and-im-not-quite-sure-why/
http://contexts.org/socimages/2008/06/25/de-racializing-the-modernitytradition-binary/
http://contexts.org/socimages/2008/04/11/resident-evil-5-africa-is-the-dark-continent/
http://contexts.org/socimages/2008/04/05/romanticizing-colonialism/
http://contexts.org/socimages/2008/08/03/juxtaposing-wealth-and-poverty/
Not to mention Far Cry 2.
Sub-saharan Africa is portrayed as a land of wilderness and adventure. It’s risky and exciting, like speeding in a car with Pirelli tires. Elephants are both majestic and dangerous, natives are both mysterious and unpredictable. Exoticism with eroticism is nothing new, though it is usually more subtle.
Looking at the sequence in order it almost seems like they are trying to get the woman on the elephant that she is terrified of. Since she is nude on the elephant I suppose it could be inferred she was sexually assaulted in the interim, but I find it a bit of a stretch. The presence of the sarong and panties throws me off the assumption of a gang-rape. With the oil over her I jump to the conclusion of cannibalism instead.
The “blood spray” is sawdust in the red light, notice how red the leaves are?
Images 1,2 and 7 look terribly photoshopped.
Is there a character or link limits on posts? I’ve tried twice to post with links to previous posts here on SI that foreshadow this series of pics and it didn’t work either time.
Hi Tim,
Yes, we have a glitch in the code. We’re aware of the problem and working on it! We certainly hate the fact that some comments aren’t going through.
Tim, for a second I thought you were trying to link to Sports Illustrated. :-S
I am disgusted by the degradation of women, but am equally appalled by the racism.
“Sub-saharan Africa is portrayed as a land of wilderness and adventure. It’s risky and exciting, like speeding in a car with Pirelli tires. Elephants are both majestic and dangerous, natives are both mysterious and unpredictable. Exoticism with eroticism is nothing new, though it is usually more subtle.”
That’s right, all Africans are rapist/cannibals. The fact that this kind of Euro-centric racist misogyny is “nothing new” is no defence, and the more covert/subtle the worse for those of us who have to live with the social results such as discrimination, abuse, and assult.
Truly beyond my comprehension as to how or why anyone would find this crap worthy of viewing. It’s not only staged but poorly staged!
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