The latest issue of The New Yorker has a Dolce & Gabbana ad that got my attention. Two young women, dressed in skimpy outfits with lots of eyelet lace, plus thigh-high black stockings and stilettos, lie on bales of hay, caressing one another. I laughed until the dog came in to see what was going on.
I'm happy that D&G's ad agency (apparently 20-something guys who never leave their cubicles, but who have rich fantasy lives) waited until I was all grown up to come up with this idea. When I was 20-something myself, this ad would have made me despair. Forget that I wasn't interested in women, this ad would have represented a level of sophistication that I, a young woman from Iowa, would never achieve. I mean, here were two stunning women, with flawless skin and perfect figures, dressed in clothing that must cost a mint, abandoning themselves to sexual ecstasy. It would never occur to me to dress in a can-can outfit like that, and even if it did, on the earnings of a modern dancer ($0.00), I would have to buy the Penney's version. Besides which, I didn't have the thin, thin figure required to carry it off. Plus, as anyone from Iowa can tell you, hay makes you itch on contact, so there was no way I could even sit on a hay bale with so little clothing on, much less abandon myself to sexual ecstasy on it.
Now in my 50's, I see a different picture. Here's how I interpret this ad today:
Two pre-teen models (judging from their baby skin and coltish legs, I'd say 11 and 12) tried to stand up in four-inch heels and fell over. Fortunately, the bales of hay broke their fall. Now they can't get up, and the reason is clear. Even piled on top of one another as they are, they can't weigh more than one normal person, so they're too weak to move. Not surprising, as their last meal was a week ago Wednesday, and it consisted of three cigarettes and a glass of water. And the sexual ecstasy part? That's actually just one model saying to the other, "Give me a push and maybe I can get off of you," and the other answering,"I think my back just broke out in hives."
So thank you, D&G, for helping me realize that some things--perspective being one of them--really do get better with age.
