Mode: La Révolution Kate Upton (Kate vs. the incredible shrinking women: will curvy finally kill the skinny star ?)

Que ta mise soit aussi coûteuse que ta bourse te le permet, sans être de fantaisie excentrique ; riche, mais peu voyante ; car le vêtement révèle souvent l’homme ; et en France, les gens de qualité et du premier rang ont, sous ce rapport, le goût le plus exquis et le plus digne. … Avant tout, sois loyal envers toi-même ; et, aussi infailliblement que la nuit suit le jour, tu ne pourras être déloyal envers personne. Polonius (Hamlet, Shakespeare)

Il nous arriverait, si nous savions mieux analyser nos amours, de voir que souvent les femmes ne nous plaisent qu’à cause du contrepoids d’hommes à qui nous avons à les disputer (…) ce contrepoids supprimé, le charme de la femme tombe. On en a un exemple dans l’homme qui, sentant s’affaiblir son goùt pour la femme qu’il aime, applique spontanément les règles qu’il a dégagées, et pour être sûr qu’il ne cesse pas d’aimer la femme, la met dans un milieu dangereux où il faut la protéger chaque jour. Proust

Quand les riches s’habituent à leur richesse, la simple consommation ostentatoire perd de son attrait et les nouveaux riches se métamorphosent en anciens riches. Ils considèrent ce changement comme le summum du raffinement culturel et font de leur mieux pour le rendre aussi visible que la consommation qu’ils pratiquaient auparavant. C’est à ce moment-là qu’ils inventent la non-consommation ostentatoire, qui paraît, en surface, rompre avec l’attitude qu’elle supplante mais qui n’est, au fond, qu’une surenchère mimétique du même processus. (…) Plus nous sommes riches en fait, moins nous pouvons nous permettre de nous montrer grossièrement matérialistes car nous entrons dans une hiérarchie de jeux compétitifs qui deviennent toujours plus subtils à mesure que l’escalade progresse. A la fin, ce processus peut aboutir à un rejet total de la compétition, ce qui peut être, même si ce n’est pas toujours le cas, la plus intense des compétitions. René Girard

Si nos ancêtres pouvaient voir les cadavres gesticulants qui ornent les pages de nos revues de mode, ils les interprèteraient vraisemblablement comme un memento mori, un rappel de la mort équivalent, peut-être, aux danses macabres sur les murs de certaines églises médiévales. Si nous leur expliquions que ces squelettes désarticulés symbolisent à nos yeux le plaisir, le bonheur, le luxe, le succès, ils se lanceraient probablement dans une fuite panique, nous imaginant possédés par un diable particulièrement malfaisant. René Girard

L’homme est un animal social qui diffère des autres animaux en ce qu’il est plus apte à l’imitation, Aristote le disait déjà (Poétique 4). Aujourd’hui on peut tracer les sources cérébrales de cette spécificité humaine. La découverte des neurones miroirs permet de mettre le doigt sur ce qui connecte les cerveaux des hommes. En outre cette découverte a encore confirmé l’importance neurologique de l’imitation chez l’être humain. Les neurones miroirs sont des neurones qui s’activent, non seulement lorsqu’un individu exécute lui-même une action, mais aussi lorsqu’il regarde un congénère exécuter la même action. On peut dire en quelque sorte que les neurones dans le cerveau de celui/celle qui observe imitent les neurones de la personne observée; de là le qualitatif ‘miroir’ (mirror neurons). Simon De Keukelaere

Nombre de recherches sur l’obésité, qui soulignent les styles de vie sédentaires, la biologie humaine ou la nourriture rapide, passent à côté de l’essentiel. L’augmentation de l’obésité doit être considérée comme un phénomène sociologique et non pas physiologique. Les gens sont influencés par des comparaisons relatives, et les normes ont changé et continuent à changer. Andrew Oswald (université de Warwick)

Girls are ditching diets for the first time in decades and embracing natural curves. More than two thirds of women now want a voluptuous look like model Kate Upton. The Sun

For a long time, fashion has been going to celebrities. Celebrities are on the magazine covers, and nobody wanted models. But why not have a model celebrity? Why not a girl who comes with her own following? Social media brings a personality to models. That’s how consumers today decide what to buy. I studied this. People told me I couldn’t be fashion, that I’m just an old-fashioned body girl, only good for swimwear. But I knew that I could bring back the supermodel. What can I say? I’m relatable. Kate Upton

When Kate first came in, everyone at the agency thought I was crazy. She wasn’t ‘fashion’ enough. (…) Kate is bigger than fashion. She’s the Jayne Mansfield of the Internet. Ivan Bart (IMG Models)

We would never use Ms. Upton for a Victoria’s Secret show, her look, she is “too obvious” to be featured in what has become the most widely viewed runway show in the world. She’s like a Page 3 girl. She’s like a footballer’s wife, with the too-blond hair and that kind of face that anyone with enough money can go out and buy. Sophia Neophitou

I come from a business where the perennial question is ‘Are you beautiful in a fashion sense or in a beauty pageant sense or beautiful-girl-next-door sense?’ And I feel like, why can’t we try to find something that’s a little bit different? If you’ve ever looked at pictures of Jean Harlow up close, she had the same curves as Kate Upton, the same silhouette, and she was the definition of beauty at the time. Stephen Gan

Thirteen years ago, every cover of every magazine wasn’t actresses, it was mostly models and then actresses would be featured inside. And now every actress is expected to also be a model. Busy Williams

But there’s been little talk about how the shift has affected actresses. As Busy said, the need to be « cover-ready » has put more pressure on celebrities to stay fit. The consequence, ironically, is that while magazine readers strive to achieve the celebrity body shapes they see on magazine covers, the celebrities on the covers are striving to maintain bodies like the models they’ve replaced. The result? No one really wins. Ellie Krupnick

We really want girls to have a focus on being healthy and also have realistic views of modeling, expectations and things like that. It’s just a really horrible mentality. I really want to focus on trying to be part of the solution to this problem. I felt like, `If you build it, they will come.’ And that’s kinda what happened. Everybody has a story and everybody is a person. You have to be sensitive to them as people and not just judge them off of a photo or off of the way they look. Katie Halchishick

I think girls just realized that they can be beautiful while still being a size 6 or 8, or plus, and you don’t have to be a size 0 or 2 to be liked or popular or get guys’ attention. Kristin Close

Prior to the assembly, Close handed out a survey with about five questions including: What size are you? What size do you want to be? Why? What she learned astonished her: Every girl wished she were skinnier no matter her current size. Even if she were a size 2, she wanted to be a size 0. (…) Halchishick believes this is because of the images young girls are inundated with of unrealistically thin models. In fact, most straight-size fashion models are thinner than 98 percent of American women, according to the NEDA. But what these young girls don’t know, Halchshick says, is what has been done to perfect the image, such as pinning, stuffing and the use of Photoshop. (…) During the boys’ assembly, they focus on how they can be the solution to the problem by understanding that what they say to girls about their weight or looks truly affects them. (…) The response from students, parents and principals has been amazing, says Halchishick. By continuing to get the word out, she hopes to start a revolution as more girls take the initiative to bring the program to their school. Daily News

Les courbes finiront-elles par avoir raison des brindilles ?

Alors que l’ancienne star de l’écurie Disney Miley Cyrus se sent obligée,  après ses anciennes collègues et le look putassier en plus, de nous refaire le coup de la tête rasée et des larmes de Sinead O’Connor …

Les formes généreuses du véritable phénomène internet Kate Upton qui avec sa blondeur et son physique de femme de footballeur faisait autrefois fuir les agences de mode …

Et une nouvelle génration de jeunes mannequins comme la fondatrice de la nouvelle agence « Healthy is the new Skinny » Katie Halchishick …

Réussiront-elles enfin à libérer notre gent féminine et surtout les plus jeunes de la tyrannie anorexisante de nos magazines et de nos défilés de mode ?

Ou feront-t-elles, elles aussi pour les hanches ou les fesses et après les lèvres,  la fortune de la chirurgie plastique du repulpage ?

‘Healthy Is the New Skinny’: Throwing a few curves at model myths

Stephanie Cary

The Daily News

11/09/11

Look in the mirror. What do you see?

Many teenage girls might shock you with their answers, as body-image issues are plaguing students in high schools across the nation.

In fact, as many as 10 million females in the United States have a body-image related eating disorder such as bulimia or anorexia, according to the National Eating Disorders Association. According to NEDA, more than half of teenage girls use unhealthy weight-controlling behaviors such as throwing up, skipping meals, fasting, taking laxatives or smoking cigarettes.

But now, Katie Halchishick — a 26-year-old Los Angeles resident and former plus-size model who struggled with her own body-image issues — is trying to fight the epidemic with her « Healthy is the New Skinny » campaign, which is promoted in collaboration with her modeling agency and nonprofit school program.

« Natural Model Management is a model agency that is built upon better values in the industry, » Halchishick said. « We really want girls to have a focus on being healthy and also have realistic views of modeling, expectations and things like that. »

At her heaviest, Halchishick was a size 14. But as she started to lose weight in an effort to get healthy, she lost clients as well.

Her agency told her to either gain back weight so she could continue modeling in plus-size, or lose enough that she could be booked as a straight-size model — size 0 to size 4.

Halchishick didn’t appreciate feeling like her agency was in control of what happened to her body or her career. She believed there were clients out there who would want to book her for the body and size she was naturally meant to be — which shifts between a size 8 or 10.

« It’s just a really horrible mentality, » Halchishick said. « So I was like, I really want to focus on trying to be part of the solution to this problem. I felt like, `If you build it, they will come.’ And that’s kinda what happened. »

Natural Model Management embraces models with healthy, natural weights as well as plus-size models. With almost 50 girls in the agency, Halchishick is proving skeptics wrong by showing there are clients out there who want natural-looking women.

Her models have been booked internationally and they have clients such as Kohl’s, Target, Jessica London, Torrid and Forever 21. As Halchishick says, there may not be a huge market for middle-range sizes, but they put the effort in to find jobs for their models.

But more than just trying to help change the fashion industry’s view of what’s beautiful, she is also trying to make a difference with younger girls through her Perfectly UnPerfected Program, a nonprofit school campaign that addresses body-image issues with students.

The program started after Kristin Close — then a senior at Placer High School in Auburn — had been talking to Halchishick about the prospect of modeling. After learning Halchishick’s message of « Healthy is the New Skinny, » Close decided that was something her school could benefit from hearing and, for her senior project, asked Halchishick to come to Placer High.

Halchishick agreed and brought along some of the Natural models as well. The project included separate assemblies for the boys and girls, as well as photo shoots during lunch and after school so the students could get their photo taken wearing a « Healthy is the New Skinny » T-shirt.

Close, now 18, says the assemblies really had an impact on the students — especially the girls — as many had to dry tears when hearing the models’ stories.

« Katie talked and another `Healthy is the New Skinny’ model, Angela — she’s a mother and she has very unique facial features that she got made fun of in high school for and she was bulimic, » Close said.

« You’d just look around the auditorium and girls were in tears because Angela was telling her story and I actually had to run up on stage and give her a tissue. I think girls just realized that they can be beautiful while still being a size 6 or 8, or plus, and you don’t have to be a size 0 or 2 to be liked or popular or get guys’ attention. »

Prior to the assembly, Close handed out a survey with about five questions including: What size are you? What size do you want to be? Why?

What she learned astonished her: Every girl wished she were skinnier no matter her current size. Even if she were a size 2, she wanted to be a size 0.

Halchishick believes this is because of the images young girls are inundated with of unrealistically thin models. In fact, most straight-size fashion models are thinner than 98 percent of American women, according to the NEDA.

But what these young girls don’t know, Halchshick says, is what has been done to perfect the image, such as pinning, stuffing and the use of Photoshop.

« I think girls only get to see these perfect images, they don’t ever actually get to hear anyone talk, » Halchishick said. « So girls assume that all these models are perfect and their lives are perfect because they see everything from a picture. And when you work with them and we all talk, that’s not the case at all. »

Since the Placer High School assembly last year, Halchishick has expanded the Perfectly UnPerfected Program to other schools with the help of her boyfriend and former model Bradford Willcox, and Hugo Schwyzer, a professor of gender studies at Pasadena City College.

They will be going to six schools in Washington and are in the process of bringing the program to a Los Angeles college in 2012.

They skew the details of the assembly to accommodate what the school wants, but the message of « Healthy is the New Skinny » is always there, as they talk with students about body-image issues, show pictures before and after Photoshop, and conduct question-and-answer sessions.

During the boys’ assembly, they focus on how they can be the solution to the problem by understanding that what they say to girls about their weight or looks truly affects them.

The response from students, parents and principals has been amazing, says Halchishick. By continuing to get the word out, she hopes to start a revolution as more girls take the initiative to bring the program to their school.

« Everybody has a story and everybody is a person. You have to be sensitive to them as people and not just judge them off of a photo or off of the way they look, » Halchishick said.

« It’s totally changed my life. That one day at Placer was more rewarding than any picture I’ve ever taken. »

Voir aussi:

Is Kate Upton the First Social Media Supermodel?

Hayley Phelan &Tyler McCall

When Kate Upton’s GQ cover hit this morning, we’re sure ours weren’t the only jaws to drop. There are few models who look (or move!) like Kate. Likewise, there are few models who have enjoyed such a meteoric rise to fame and success.

But make no mistake: Upton is by no means just a benefactor of good luck (or bountiful breasts). She’s very much a star of her own making, and her career decisions–starting with the fateful day she posted that Dougie video to YouTube–have helped her carve out an image and public following that is truly unlike any other model: She managed to parlay a popular YouTube clip to propel her ho-hum modeling career into the supermodel stratosphere, becoming a favorite of fashionistas like Katie Grand and Carine Roitfeld and lad mags alike. Taking cues from reality TV, she plays up her blond bombshell, sometimes even ditzy, personality with a wink–and now she’s poised to become a household name.

So how exactly did she do it? Read on for a look at the ups and downs of Upton’s career–and how she harness the power of social media to ensure she’d be more than just a good set of you-know-whats.

Voir également:

Model Struts Path to Stardom Not on Runway, but on YouTube

Guy Trebay

The New York Times

February 13, 2012

There was a time, not long ago, when the surest path to modeling stardom was down the runway of a top designer’s show, when it would have been unthinkable to find among the industry’s top ranks a swimsuit girl whose main claims to fame were ad campaigns for Guess jeans and Beach Bunny Swimwear.

But that was before social media altered the paths to fame.

Unlike the many little-known beauties now on view at New York Fashion Week — women seldom identified by more than one name (Agata, Hanaa, Frida, Joan) — Kate Upton, just 19 and resembling a 1950s pinup, but with the legs of a W.N.B.A. point guard, has arrived on the scene as a largely self-created Internet phenomenon.

It is not just that she has a respectable Twitter following (170,000 people at last count), or a YouTube video with over 3 million viewers, or marketing potential perhaps best measured by her rocketing from obscurity to No. 2 on a list of the world’s 99 “top” women compiled by AskMen.com, an online magazine with 15 million readers. (Sofia Vergara, of the ABC sitcom “Modern Family,” is No. 1.)

Less than a year after Ms. Upton, curvaceous and rambunctious, posted a video of herself at a Los Angeles Clippers game doing the Dougie, a dance popularized in a hip-hop tune by Cali Swag District, she finds herself in one of the most coveted positions in the modeling business.

Joining an elite club of modeling powerhouses — brand names like Cheryl Tiegs, Tyra Banks and Heidi Klum — Ms. Upton was announced Monday night on David Letterman’s show as the latest cover girl for Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue, the circulation and advertising behemoth that has long been equally the dream book of adolescent males and the bane of feminists.

In modeling, as in movies (see: “Chronicle,” the film that hit No. 1 at the box office this month after relying on social media outlets like Twitter and YouTube for its marketing), music (the band Fun. and its inescapable viral hit “We Are Young”) and most other cultural endeavors, it is increasingly clear that there is no longer a single path to success.

“We all know that social media now creates its own reality,” said Wayne Sterling, the publisher of Models.com, an industry Web site. “If you become a YouTube star among teenagers, you have even more recognizability than a TV star,” he said. “Kate Upton is the perfect example of that.”

It was soon after the Dougie video went viral that a seasoned scout, David Cunningham, brought Ms. Upton to the attention of Ivan Bart of IMG Models, the company behind the multimillion-dollar careers of women like Gisele Bündchen, Ms. Klum and Kate Moss.

“When Kate first came in, everyone at the agency thought I was crazy,” Mr. Bart, the “superagent” who heads IMG Models, said of Ms. Upton. “She wasn’t ‘fashion’ enough.”

Mr. Bart signed her anyway. And soon, to the surprise of some in the industry, Ms. Upton was being sought out for editorial sittings with people like Carine Roitfeld, the French fashion eminence known for her prophetic eye, and by Katie Grand, the influential stylist and editor of the fashion-forward British magazine Love.

Wholesomely proportioned at 5 feet 11 inches with a 36-25-34 figure, Ms. Upton was a long way from the coolly robotic Eastern European beauty ideal that has dominated the catwalks for many seasons. “Kate is bigger than fashion,” Mr. Bart said. “She’s the Jayne Mansfield of the Internet.”

Though the catwalks of New York, Paris and Milan, traditionally a pathway to magazine covers and the lavish cosmetic and fragrance advertising campaigns that are the grail of every modeling hopeful, will continue to exert influence, it is increasingly difficult for the industry to ignore the world outside the Fashion Week tents, particularly the one that is virtual.

“It’s not just enough to cast such-and-such a girl that opened Prada or Vuitton or whatever,” said Trey Laird, the creative director of Laird & Partners, the advertising agency behind brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Juicy Couture and the Gap. “It’s a huge help if a girl already has a platform and followers, and Kate Upton is a great example of that.”

Those dubious about Ms. Upton’s crossover potential, or of any career driven toward the stony heart of fashion from the do-it-yourself fringes of the blogosphere, include Sophia Neophitou, editor of the English style bible 10 and a creative force behind the casting of the Victoria’s Secret shows.

“We would never use” Ms. Upton for a Victoria’s Secret show, Ms. Neophitou said by telephone last week from London. And, while Ms. Upton has, in fact, modeled on occasion for the company’s catalog, her look, said Ms. Neophitou, is “too obvious” to be featured in what has become the most widely viewed runway show in the world.

“She’s like a Page 3 girl,” Ms. Neophitou said, referring to the scantily clad voluptuous women featured in The Sun, a London tabloid. “She’s like a footballer’s wife, with the too-blond hair and that kind of face that anyone with enough money can go out and buy.”

And yet, Ms. Upton turns up as the hottest new face in the industry in a coming issue of V, a fashion magazine with a cult following among the cognoscenti.

“I wasn’t necessarily drawn to her because of her having been big online and having several million hits on YouTube,” said Stephen Gan, V’s editor in chief and creative director. “In fact, I first heard of her when we were having a party at the Boom Boom Room and Kate Moss’s agent called and said, ‘Can you put Kate Upton on your list?’ ”

Unfamiliar then with the young model, Mr. Gan searched Google and came upon the Dougie video, along with the welter of gossip items that connect Ms. Upton to celebrities like Kanye West and the New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez. Tabloid readiness aside, he saw in her something a less seasoned fashion eye might overlook.

“I come from a business where the perennial question is ‘Are you beautiful in a fashion sense or in a beauty pageant sense or beautiful-girl-next-door sense?’ ” Mr. Gan said. “And I feel like, why can’t we try to find something that’s a little bit different? If you’ve ever looked at pictures of Jean Harlow up close, she had the same curves as Kate Upton, the same silhouette, and she was the definition of beauty at the time.”

Sitting last week in the Manhattan offices of IMG Models, clad in tight jeans and Christian Louboutin stilettos and with her peroxided hair piled high, Ms. Upton called to mind the dumb blondes of an earlier era, women like Ms. Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe who, as we now know, were not dumb at all.

But unlike the passive beauties of the 1950s, Ms. Upton has a coolly appraising approach to her assets. She also has a big laugh, no shortage of confidence and the habit of cracking her knuckles like a tomboy bombshell.

“For a long time, fashion has been going to celebrities,” she said. “Celebrities are on the magazine covers, and nobody wanted models. But why not have a model celebrity? Why not a girl who comes with her own following? Social media brings a personality to models. That’s how consumers today decide what to buy.”

“I studied this,” added Ms. Upton, a Michigan native who was raised in Melbourne, Fla., and who began work at 15, spending her first few years toiling in the lucrative but unglamorous salt mines of catalog modeling.

What Ms. Upton learned was that before Ms. Bündchen grew Angel wings and became Mrs. Tom Brady and a business impresario overseeing a multimillion-dollar empire built on the licensing of everything from lingerie to shower shoes, she was just another runway girl from the first wave of then-new Brazilians, a woman routinely informed she would never make it big in high fashion because her figure was too curvy and her nose was too long.

“People told me I couldn’t be fashion, that I’m just an old-fashioned body girl, only good for swimwear,” Ms. Upton said. “But I knew that I could bring back the supermodel.”

“What can I say?” she added. “I’m relatable.”

Voir encore:

Has Kate Upton forgiven Victoria’s Secret for those ‘too obvious’ comments? Model makes surprise appearance in lingerie giant’s new catalog

Victoria’s Secret’s casting director said early last year that the model is ‘like a page three girl’ with ‘the kind of face that anyone with enough money can go out and buy’

Tamara Abraham

Daily Mail

28 May 2013

Kate Upton appears to be modeling for Victoria’s Secret, just over a year after the casting director for the lingerie giant’s catwalk shows said she ‘would never use [her].’

In an image obtained by Buzzfeed of the back of the newest Victoria’s Secret catalog, the model, 20, is seen wearing a black Body by Victoria bra.

It comes as some surprise to see her posing for the brand, given that she was the subject of some scathing comments from its model booker, Sophia Neophitou, in a New York Times interview early last year.

Ms Neophitou told the paper that she would never book Miss Upton for the Victoria’s Secret catwalk show.

‘She is too obvious. She’s like a page three girl.’ she said. ‘She’s like a footballer’s wife, with the too-blond hair and the kind of face that anyone with enough money can go out and buy.’

Ms Neophitou appears to be alone in her opinion of Miss Upton though. The model, who shot to fame after landing the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2012, has become the darling of the fashion set.

In just under 18 months, she has appeared on three Vogue covers, fronted the inaugural issue of CR Fashion Book, and posed in photo shoots for V Magazine, Terry Richardson and Harper’s Bazaar.

She has also attended the Met Gala and modeled in campaigns for Sam Edelman and Mercedes Benz.

And she still remains in favor with Sports Illustrated, who chose her for yet another Swimsuit Issue cover this year.

But while Miss Upton has never been an official Angel, it would seem that she has maintained a relationship with Victoria’s Secret since her teens.

Buzzfeed reveals that she modeled pajamas for the brand back in 2011, when she would have been about 18, well before her Sports Illustrated fame.

But the site’s Amy O’Dell explains that a model’s presence in the catalog does not automatically qualify her for the runway show.

‘Casting for the catalog and fashion show are seen as two very different things to the fashion community,’ she said. ‘There’s a lot of cross-over but it’s not a fully symbiotic relationship.’

MailOnline reached out to Victoria’s Secret to determine the nature of Miss Upton’s apparent new role, but is yet to get a response.

Voir encore:

Models vs. Actresses On Covers: What The Shift Has Meant For Celebrities’ Bodies

Ellie Krupnick

The Huffington Post

05/31/2013

The era of models-as-cover-stars came to an end around the time Anna Wintour took over at Vogue. There, she popularized the casting of celebrities — mainly actresses and pop stars — for fashion covers instead of models. Her first major celeb cover featured Madonna, a choice that was seen as a risk… and resulted in a 40 percent spike in newsstand sales.

The shift was a positive eye-opener for Vogue and the other magazines that followed suit. But the turn from professional models to celebrities might have had a negative impact on the celebs themselves. In a recent interview with Amanda de Cadenet for « The Conversation, » actress Busy Philipps provided an interesting insight:

« 13 years ago, every cover of every magazine wasn’t actresses, it was mostly models and then actresses would be featured inside. And now every actress is expected to also be a model. »

It’s been widely discussed that the move from models to Hollywood A-listers negatively affected the models. Naomi Campbell said it best: « Of course, we want the magazine covers back… [A young model has] got more to compete with and there are only a certain amount of covers they’re going to give a model a year. Before, you had models 12 months a year. »

But there’s been little talk about how the shift has affected actresses. As Busy said, the need to be « cover-ready » has put more pressure on celebrities to stay fit.

The consequence, ironically, is that while magazine readers strive to achieve the celebrity body shapes they see on magazine covers, the celebrities on the covers are striving to maintain bodies like the models they’ve replaced.

The result? No one really wins. Let’s hope that Anna Wintour was watching Philipps’ interview and took away a few insights. Watch the conversation for yourself in the video above, or go to TheConversation.tv.

More women we love speaking out about body image:

Voir enfin:

Miley Cyrus, son clip et le twerk : faux scandale, vraie hypocrisie, marketing de génie

Benoît Raphaël

Le Nouvel Observateur

07-10-2013

LE PLUS. Miley Cyrus apparaît nue dans son clip. Miley Cyrus agite ses fesses devant Robin Thicke, Miley Cyrus lèche une masse de chantier, Miley Cyrus fait des trucs avec sa langue. Bref, Miley Cyrus fait plein de choses et buzz à tout va. Du bruit, au point que même Sinéad O’Connor et Annie Lennox s’en sont mêlées. Cyrus est-elle vraiment scandaleuse ? Pas sûr. Analyse de Benoît Raphaël.

Les médias web peuvent dire merci à Miley Cyrus. Miley Cyrus peut dire merci au web. Chacune de ses apparitions grimpe à 10 sur l’échelle du buzz. Son dernier single (« Wrecking Ball ») fait un carton. Et plus on lui reproche de montrer ses fesses, plus elle gagne de l’argent. Et des fans. Cool.

C’est un jeu auquel l’Amérique adore jouer depuis des dizaines d’années : puritanisme + provocation + business. La formule est bien rodée. C’est même à se demander si les détracteurs de la jeune chanteuse n’auraient pas été payés par la maison de disques.

Rappel de l’histoire pour ceux qui auraient raté ce cas d’école du buzz marketing.

Anatomie d’un buzz parfait

Août 2013 : Miley Cyrus fait une performance épicée aux MTV Awards. Sur la chanson de Robin Thicke, « Blurred Lines », dont le clip fait déjà l’objet d’un buzz pour sexisme, la chanteuse se lance dans un twerk (le twerk est une danse assez moche qui consiste à remuer les fesses sous le nez de son partenaire… ou de son chien). Elle porte un maillot de bain couleur chair.

Bon. Buzz « Blurred Lines » + buzz « twerk » + buzz « petite tenue » + buzz « MTV Awards » = buzz multiplié par 4.

On notera que Miley Cyrus a été, il n’y a pas si longtemps que cela, l’idole des des enfants. Vous vous souvenez peut-être de sa prestation doudou dans Hannah Montana. La présence d’ours en peluche sur la scène des MTV Awards n’est d’ailleurs certainement pas innocente. Clin d’œil à son passé de Mickey Girl, la mise en scène a pour objectif de marquer une rupture. Un peu comme Britney Spears en son temps. Ou encore Selena Gomez. Ce qui nous rajoute un cinquième ingrédient de buzz.

Ah oui, j’oubliais la langue. Miley Cyrus dispose d’une langue particulièrement longue, qu’elle fait tourner dans tous les sens, ce qui, au-delà de la provocation, est un excellent support pour la création de memes (le meme est le détournement répété et viral d’une image pratiqué par les internautes avec l’aide de Photoshop).

La grande langue, donc, sixième ingrédient à placer dans cette recette de buzz marketing autour du lancement de l’album d’une jeune chanteuse jusque là un peu fade.

L’opération est donc presque un cas d’école, qui révèle une forme de science arithmétique relativement aboutie (adepte des mathématiques, Rihanna s’est elle aussi mise au twerk…).

La machine était lancée.

Annie Lennox et Sinéad O’Connor surfent sur la vague

Après une petite série de provocations, Miley Cyrus enfonce le clou avec un clip plutôt sobre dans lequel elle apparaît nue sur un boulet de démolition, et où on l’aperçoit lécher une masse.

On a vu plus dénudé. Lady Gaga notamment, il y a quelques semaines, à l’occasion du lancement de son dernier album. Un lancement raté. Pour Miley, c’est différent. Le buzz était lancé. Les médias web ont fait des tonnes de pages vues sur le buzz, il n’était pas question de s’arrêter.

C’est là que Sinéad O’Connor s’en mêle. Elle publie une lettre ouverte à Miley Cyrus, lui conseillant d’aller se rhabiller. Et lui expliquant (je résume) : ce monde est cruel, tu n’as que 20 ans, et tu te fais manipuler par des business-men sans complexes qui te déshabillent pour vendre tes disques.

Annie Lennox (Eurythmics) lui emboîte le pas et demande à ce qu’on arrête avec l’hypersexualisation des clips. Ben voyons.

Résultat : doublement du buzz. Du coup, on reparle et de Miley Cyrus et de Sinead O’Connor. Qui a peut-être, elle aussi, un album en préparation. Non, en fait c’est plutôt un livre… Annie Lennox ? On parle d’un nouvel album pour 2014.

En tout cas, les deux vétérantes ne pouvaient pas rendre un meilleur service à ces méchants exploiteurs de jeunes filles innocentes que seraient les maisons de disques.

Good buzz, bad buzz, même combat.

Maintenant, ce sont des nus de la starlette shootés par le photographe Richardson qui font tourner la machine à clics. Un classique !

L’archétype de l’hypocrisie américaine

Bref, un buzz bien orchestré, dans les règles de l’art. Pas vraiment original depuis Madonna et le bout de sein de Janet Jackson. Mais qui continue visiblement de fonctionner. Rien de grave, d’ailleurs. L’album est plutôt pas mal, et Miley Cyrus a suffisamment d’humour pour se moquer de ses propres prestations. Il n’y a qu’à visionner son auto-parodie le week-end dernier au « Saturday Night Fever ».

Au fond, ce n’est que du divertissement. Tant que tout le monde s’amuse et gagne de l’argent, où est le problème ? Au pire, ce buzz banal nous montre combien l’Amérique a encore du mal à se sortir de son puritanisme… Mais est toujours aussi bonne en marketing !

Tout le reste n’est qu’hypocrisie.