Humphrey's bone to pick with J.Crew

Humphrey looks forward to the arrival of the colorful J.Crew catalogues passed his way every couple of months. For the past year or so, he has been fascinated by the unique styling and color combinations! But he has begun to notice a trend…and now he has a bone to pick with J. Crew.

Now, on the one hand, he is impressed with the creativedirector Jenna Lyons, whose personal style is said to be reflected in the retailer’s rebranding. She posed for some gender atypical catalogue photos, including painting her son’s nails (which stirred up quite a bit of controversy in 2011)! Their deliciously appealing catalogues are master-minded by Gayle Spannaus, the company’s fashion director and head women’s stylist.

But Humphrey noticed something alarming in the past year's catalogues…

 

The male models are not only named, but their careers are listed! November 2012’s catalogue features Joe Carlucci, Contemporary Art Business Dealer; Armando Cabral, Shoe Designer and Model; Spencer Lyons, Financial Advocacy Director; Justin Marquis, Photographer; snow-roofed Pedro Gomez, Artist (in the photo above). They are different colors, shapes and sizes, and some even have snow on the roofs!

Humphrey flipped back to the beginning, searching for the women’s names and careers. He searched. And searched. He got a magnifying glass and searched some more in case there was fine print. Nothing! Not one name, nor a single career! But he did notice uniformity in their makeup and hair.

As a critical feminist canine, Humphrey gave this some thought. The message he was receiving was that if you’re a man, of course you have a name, an identity, a job, and your physical appearance can be diverse and imperfect. But if you’re a woman in the J.Crew world, your only worth is your appearance – and a very specific one at that. Don’t bother with a name or a career or accomplishments. Just look pretty and do what you’re told.

And just as he was drawing his conclusions, the Winter 2013 issue of Fashion (the magazine) arrived – featuring an interview with Gayle Spannaus herself! He noticed two rather interesting statements that confirmed his suspicions: “I had a very specific instinct for what the J.Crew girl should be,” the woman (who has name! Gayle!) said. And, “I will never work with a girl with plucked eyebrows.”

The sum total of Gayle Spannous’ direction, Humphrey realized, are acts of microagression on women. That’s a big word for a little dog! What could it mean?

For those new to this concept, Chester Pierce coined the term ‘microaggression’ in 1970 to describe how specific interactions between genders (and other points of intersectionality) can be interpreted as mostly non-physical aggression. Just as regular-sized aggression and assault are two different things, so are microaggression and microassault.

Gender microassaults are forms of overt sexism, like being called a “girl” when you’re old enough to be a grandmother, a man refusing to wash dishes because it’s women’s work, or men’s unwanted sexual advances toward women. Acts of microaggresion are far more subtle, like the nameless models in the J.Crew catalogue when their male counterparts are celebrated as humans. Another example is a female doctor is mistaken for a nurse at the hospital (with the message that women should be in nurturant jobs, not competent enough to be doctors).

Microaggressions usually seem like no big deal. Each event, observation and experience posted is not significant or shocking. Usually, the aggressor doesn’t intend to hurt others and isn’t even aware of the consequences. But, their slow accumulation of microaggessions over time adds up, and has important outcomes. A Psychology Today article cites this example to show how acts of microaggression influence women’s standard of living and quality of life: White American males constitute only 33% of the population. Yet, they occupy approximately 80% of tenured positions in higher education (something Humphrey’s guardian wishes for!), 80%-85% of federal elected officials, and a whopping 92% of Forbes 400 executive CEO-level positions.

Humphrey’s observation about the J.Crew catalogue by itself may not seem like a big deal. But he is worried that his female guardian, being exposed to yet another instance of microaggression, will continue to feel a little less, and keeps her that much further away from making tenure. On the flip side, as Humphrey reported earlier, there is definitely a social benefit to providing public examples of women in nontraditional positions!

 

He hopes J.Crew will reconsider their strategy of microagressions, which he realizes are probably not intentional on the part of Gayle Spannaus and her colleagues. Nonetheless, he believes he could appreciate a nap on their soft, soft cashmere sweaters with a lot less guilt if they would change their ways.