FKA Twigs hits out at ‘double standards’ over Calvin Klein advert ban
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FKA Twigs has spoken out about “double standards” after her Calvin Klein advertisement was banned over complaints it objectified women, saying she is a “beautiful woman of colour”.
The poster featured the 36-year-old British singer-songwriter wearing a denim shirt drawn halfway around her body, leaving the side of her buttocks and half of one breast exposed, with text reading: “Calvins or nothing.”
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received two complaints that the images used were “overly sexualised”, offensive and irresponsible because they objectified women and were inappropriately displayed.
However, the artist, whose real name is Tahliah Debrett Barnett, challenged the complaints in an Instagram post on Thursday and thanked Calvin Klein for giving her the “space to express myself exactly how I wanted to”.
Alongside a picture of the poster, she wrote: “I do not see the ‘stereotypical sexual object’ that they have labelled me.
“I see a beautiful strong woman of colour whose incredible body has overcome more pain than you can imagine.
“In light of reviewing other campaigns past and current of this nature, I can’t help but feel there are some double standards here.
“So to be clear... I am proud of my physicality and hold the art I create with my vessel to the standards of women like Josephine Baker, Eartha Kitt and Grace Jones, who broke down barriers of what it looks like to be empowered and harness a unique embodied sensuality.
“Thank you to CK and Mert and Marcus who gave me a space to express myself exactly how I wanted to – I will not have my narrative changed.”
A ‘confident and empowered woman’
In contrast to the FKA Twigs advertisement, two other images from the same campaign, featuring Kendall Jenner, the model and influencer, were deemed inoffensive by the ASA.
Calvin Klein had previously defended the advertisement featuring FKA Twigs, saying it was similar to those it had been releasing in the UK for many years.
The fashion brand said FKA Twigs, whom it described as a “confident and empowered woman”, had collaborated with Calvin Klein to produce the image and had approved it before publication.
It added that all “conventionally sensitive” body areas were fully covered and the subject was in a natural and neutral position.
The ASA said: “We considered the image’s composition placed viewers’ focus on the model’s body rather than on the clothing being advertised.
“The ad used nudity and centred on FKA Twigs’s physical features rather than the clothing, to the extent that it presented her as a stereotypical sexual object.
“We therefore concluded the ad was irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence.”
The ASA did not ban the posters featuring Jenner following complaints on the same grounds, finding that they did not focus on her body in a manner that portrayed her as a sexual object and the level of nudity was not beyond that which people would expect for a lingerie ad.
An ASA spokesman said: “Our published ruling sets out why, on this occasion, the ad broke the rules by irresponsibly objectifying a woman and being targeted inappropriately.”
FKA Twigs is the recipient of awards including a Mobo Award, two UK Music Video Awards, two Music Producers Guild Awards, and a YouTube Music Award.
She is also Grammy and Brit-award nominated, and has dated Robert Pattinson, the Batman and Twilight actor, as well as Matt Healy, the frontman of The 1975.
Jenner is the world’s highest-paid model and the daughter of Kris and Caitlyn Jenner. She shot to fame on the reality television show, Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
