paging amanda lepore

given that fashion is ostensibly a very female, feminine vice, i find myself increasingly disturbed by this season's high-fashion advertising campaigns. though the presentation of fashion has always been a rather masculine discipline (models, with their smooth, featureless bodies echoing nothing so much as a prepubescent boy) it is a very different form of masculinity infusing these campaigns; while still adolescent in tone, there seems to be emphasis on large, strong hands and square jaws. absent eyelashes and brows. instead of the boy scout, they seem to want the second-string quarterback.


that's right. the drag queens have landed in the fashion world.


the greatest perpetrator of this new phenomenon is fashion house valentino, whose insert i just stumbled across in elle magazine. the images feature this platinum blonde amazon creature who, if it isn't a man, is one of the most terrifying images of nu-femininity as according to the fashionistas that i've ever seen.