Valentina Zelyaeva in Ralph Lauren ad in Sydney

Now I truly am convinced that Ralph Lauren himself is trying to Photoshop away the female sexuality and life vitality of his models.

Lauren has Karl Lagerfeld for backup.

Let’s call this Photoshop ad campaign scandal for what it is: many of today’s fashion designers want to render women sexless and powerless.

A new image of Valentina Zelyaeva has appeared in a Ralph Lauren ad from Sydney. This woman, were she real, would also be dying of anorexia. Her hair would be falling out; her bones brittle; and she would have neither libido nor a menstrual period. She would not be capable of reproducing herself.

In fact, she might be a robot woman.

Valentina Zelyaeva is not an emaciated twig of a girl, with no sexuality in her genes. This is the REAL Valentina Zelyaeva, and she is clearly too hot for the Ralph Lauren boys to handle!

Valentina ZelyaevaI implore the Today Show and other major media to specifically ask the Ralph Lauren boys just what kind of woman they are trying to sell to us.

If this Ralph Lauren advertising message has no intention attached to it, then advertising is irrelevant.

Brands can’t have this issue both ways. Either advertising is aspirational or not. Ralph Lauren says that women really aspire to be the emaciated twig of the real woman that Valentina Zelyaeva is. I insist that they speak to this subject directly, and not in muckey-muck PR language.

I want Ralph Lauren holding both photos in his hands, and he must explain to us what is going on here. Anne

Photo via PhotoshopDisasters.com