Warning, contains nudity and possibly feminism.

Check out this "about" statement from clothing company "Two in the Shirt" [emphasis mine]:

Two In The Shirt is a fresh new company with a focus on bringing tastefully provocative clothing to the forefront of fashion. The name 'Two In the Shirt' is derived from the acronym T.I.T.S., which is quite fitting considering the nature of the clothing itself. T.I.T.S. merchandise consists of men's and women's apparel printed with original designs. Each design showcases classy prints of nude or nearly nude women. "Like a training bra, support T.I.T.S."

I'm intrigued by the contrast between the rhetoric of this statement ("tastefully," "classy") and the visual rhetoric of the website (I'm not linking it here, but you can find it if you want to. Some images on the blog are VERY explicit). In the "lifestyle" slideshow, all the clothes (most with provocative images of women on them) are modeled by men in dominant, powerful postures. Images of women in the blog are hyper-sexualized and, often, faceless. If you head over there, I recommend checking out the "Wifey" and "American Flavors" collections.

There is a long tradition of depicting the human body, especially the female body, in fine arts, and that's part of what T.I.T.S. is trying to evoke with their language here. Compare one of their products with a more recognized "artistic" nude, Manet's "Dejeuner sur L'herbe," which caused great controversy when it was first exhibited:




I'm going to hold back a bit and see what you all think about these. What similarities/differences do you see in these two approaches to the female body and the power relationship between women and [actual or implied] men? Is there something artistic about what this company does?

Contributors: We Are Distinctly Four

An intriguing conspiracy theory was just brought to my attention. (Okay, so maybe "conspiracy theory" is an exaggeration.) I was asked if ARC was just the work of one person writing under different names.

The answer is, no way! This blog does indeed have four separate contributors. DocHoc, Lady Audley, Rhetorical Twist, and myself are different people. We do happen to be good friends and so shared interests, ideas, and pedagogical approaches may reveal themselves in our posts.

I hope that, over time, readers will come to know our differences more clearly and feel free to share in the community we've created here. Join the dialog! We're just starting out and the conversation could use more voices.

Thanks for reading,
Teacher Poet

P.S. Teacher Poet is eagerly anticipating posts on how the refrigerator died and killed all the veggies; that lingering unpleasant odor in the new flat; sketchy wireless; explorations in the new surroundings of City U. and Cornfield U.; more on the syllabus from Doc Hoc and Rhetorical Twist; and the promised bit about plagiarism from Rhet.