FKA twigs doesn’t agree that her new Calvin Klein ad, which has been banned in the United Kingdom, portrays her as a “stereotypical sexual object.” In fact, after “reviewing other campaigns past and current of this nature,” the musician and actress wrote in a statement that she “can’t help but feel there are some double standards here.”
The ad in question is captioned “Calvins or nothing” and features a black-and-white shot of twigs standing in profile and facing the camera with a shirt draped around her nude body. According to The Guardian, the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority banned the image after only two people complained about it.
“The ad used nudity and centred on FKA twigs’ physical features rather than the clothing, to the extent that it presented her as a stereotypical sexual object,” the ASA’s statement reads, per The Guardian, adding that the “image’s composition placed viewers’ focus on the model’s body rather than on the clothing being advertised.” As a result, the institution decided the ad was “irresponsible and likely to cause serious offence.”
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But both twigs and Calvin Klein see the image differently.
“i do not see the ‘stereotypical sexual object’ that they have labelled me,” twigs wrote on Instagram late Wednesday night. “i see a beautiful strong woman of colour whose incredible body has overcome more pain than you can imagine.”
She added, “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.”
The ASA said it also received two complaints about another ad from last year, in which Kendall Jenner posed topless, with her arms wrapped around her nude breasts. The ASA deemed that advertisement acceptable, The Guardian reports, because per its statement, that ad had not been done “in a manner that portrayed her as a sexual object.”
Calvin Klein addressed both the twigs and Jenner ads in its own statement.
“The images were not vulgar and were of two confident and empowered women who had chosen to identify with the Calvin Klein brand, and the ads contained a progressive and enlightened message,” the company wrote, per The Guardian, adding that both models’ poses were “natural and neutral.”
It also has not escaped people’s notice that all of this is unfolding while Jeremy Allen White and his butt are breaking the internet in another (apparently fine) Calvin Klein ad.
Research has shown that Black women and even girls tend to be seen as hyper-sexualized. Speaking with The Daily Mail, ASA director Miles Lockwood said the ASA’s 12-member council includes “a range of genders, ages, backgrounds and ethnicities.”
While only two complaints sparked the ban, Lockwood maintained to The Daily Mail, “If we played a numbers game, that would lead to some really illogical outcomes. Sometimes a single complaint can raise incredibly important issues.”
Lockwood emphasized to The Daily Mail that the ASA is “damned if we do, damned if we don’t,” and added, “Inevitably with this sort of judgment, they are subjective at the end of the day, and we have to make a decision.”
