I was first introduced to this advert by a student in my Dance, Politics and Identity class and would like to share it with all of you.
As someone who has several family members who have gone 'under the knife,' I like the subversive potential of the message, especially for the bourgeois Latin American culture that it was initially geared towards, yet the you-tube commentary (as well as my student's paper) point to the fact that these dancer bodies do not necessarily have to worry about corporeal enhancement because they are already physically fit and adhere to aesthetic ideals. Nevertheless, dancer bodies have to work and sweat, they don't automatically exist as 'beautiful' or 'ideal.' Cultural labor (the actual labeling, setting up and rendering of the aesthetic ideal), and physical labor (dancing/working out 6 days a week, every week) operate in the rendering. So, I leave you with the video. Let the commentary, conversations, analysis, and dance theory begin.
Nike Women Ad
3 comments:
When I first saw this, I was completely grossed out by the ham slicing and perplexed by what this had to do with Nike. The transition between being a piece of meat and becoming a dancing subject is just too strained in this video. It is further complicated by the editorial insistence that "this is social commentary" effected by the cuts from the dancers to the faces of the surgeons. The attempt is to make us believe that it is a dance flash mob. How is the "wisdom of the mob" being sourced here to sell sneakers and dance apparel for larger hips?
anna ... the ham slicing really grossed me out too!
and what about the dancer bodies that may dance and work out all the time, but will still never meet the aesthetic ideal? which is obviously not the bodies being represented in this video, with the exception of the one larger dancer who just doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the group. she was hidden in the back during the large group numbers. and the video was blurry, but it seemed like she was always a few counts behind the rest of the group. she is given a brief solo towards the end of the ad, but the setting is strange - she is pushed into a back corner of a hallway busting a move in front of a male security guard. does her presence subvert or reinforce the overall message of this ad?
yeah, i thought the big-n-beautiful chick moment was just at the edge of becoming ridiculous: the dance style was an import, she had more costuming than the others(she looked like she was headed to carnival), and the guard looked thoroughly disgusted, not pretend mortified, down right disgusted. The editing also made that section bobble (pun intended).my Spanish is not strong enough to catch all the lyrics, but i am interested in how confrontational these women are in the way they deploy their gaze, not just their hips. I wonder what's going on in the lyrics and if this is a Colombian-centric ad.
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