It's often remarked that no great advance is ever made in science, politics or religion
without controversy.

Today, with the help of singer Christina Aguilera, we add shoe sales to that list.

In response to pressure from nearly 3,000 women, members of the American Family
Association (AFA) and the U.S.-based Centre for Nursing Advocacy (CNA), a controversial
campaign for U.S. shoe company Skechers, featuring pin-up images of Aguilera, has been
pulled from U.S. distribution. International media buys of the ads have been discontinued.

The shoe company's three-ad series, dubbed "Naughty and Nice" by Skechers, pictures
the coquettish pop star in contrasting cop/criminal, teacher/student and nurse/patient scenarios.

The campaign is provocative in a wink-wink sort of way, but nothing worse than what teenagers
might see in an episode of The O.C. And although the ads can still be seen in Canada and Europe,
the fact they were yanked from the American market demands a more critical response than the
self-congratulatory puffery now coming from the right wing.

In early August, both the AFA and CNA began lobbying against the fall Skechers campaign.
The AFA claims the ads make "a mockery of professional women and choose to portray them
as sex objects, which undermines their value in the workplace."

The CNA goes so far as to suggest the campaign equates nursing with "sex slave work,"
claiming it "shows that nurses are there to fullfill the sexual needs of patients and physicians."

It's enough to drive a sane person to country-western music.

The AFA's use of feminist language to legitimize its moral crusade is peculiar.

This organization -- whose platforms are at once anti-gay, pro-life and ultra-conservative --
is the same group that, on its international website, describes feminists as people who have
"rejected motherhood and promoted abortion."

Now they want to speak on women's behalf? You might as well ask Hannibal Lecter to be
a spokesperson for the Food Network.

It's easier to sympathize with the plight of the nurses, who for years have endured myriad
stereotypes about their profession.

The suggestion that Skechers has likened nursing to sexual slavery, however, is a more direct
affront to the thousands of women and girls in Third World countries who are regularly sold into prostitution.

Ultimately, the Skechers controversy is steeped in the centuries-old debate over which images
of women are acceptable in the popular imagination.

There's no shortage of women, including some old-school feminists, who consider any sexualized
portrayal of a woman to be demeaning. Fortunately, there are many more women who appreciate
that gentle sexual provocation, under the right circumstances, can be just as empowering --
if not more so -- as unshaved legs and Birkenstocks.

This is why it's important to make a distinction between women who are overtly sexual because
it's their right and women who are overtly sexual because they're catering to the male whim.

While Aguilera consistently preaches a message of strength and independence, pop-twit Britney Spears -
- who in July thought it amusing to feign oral sex with her fiance for paparazzi -- sends women back into
the Dark Ages. Or, at the very least, into the pre-Joan Jett ages.

A woman's sexuality is not something to be feared, hated or shamed. Whether Aguilera uses the
power of her mind or the power of her mammaries to get what she wants -- even if all she wants is
to sell a few pairs of shoes -- the point is that she's doing it for herself.

And looking at the singer's millions of dollars worth of endorsement deals with everyone from
Skechers to Versace to MAC cosmetics, it seems the chief person exploiting Aguilera's fame
and sexuality is, in fact, Aguilera.

http://www.canada.com/saskatoon/starphoenix/news/story.html?id=a12d5e1a-8c7a-40f6-9bb2-f81419964f43

Original press release