Vanessa Paradis is virtually unrecognisable in a wig and dowdy ensemble as she shoots new movie Fading GigoloA pointless non-story which is worth flagging up for its use of the word 'dowdy'. The 'dowdy ensemble' refers to what the character in the movie is wearing, not something the actor has chosen to wear herself. The question for the readers to debate is thus about glamour: Does a glamorous film star still look glamorous in unglamorous clothes?
'Dowdy' is the opposite of glamorous, but it's not a neutral word. It only applies to women, and is mostly used in conjunction with — or to imply — 'lesbian'. To be dowdy is to be drab and joyless. To be dowdy is to be not open to having sex with men. The one blurs into the other. But nobody wants to be thought of as drab or joyless. Ergo…
So this story becomes about how to separate heterosexuality from other types of femininity. Some readers don't agree that the ensemble is dowdy, because it's identifiably feminine (skirt, pumps) and features some markers of (hetero)sexuality — thick hair and a high-waisted skirt that, as the Mail puts it, "somehow managed to accentuate petite Vanessa's slim waist".
This last quote explicitly identifies the thing that is not supposed to compute in this story: the contrast between the (dowdy, sexless) clothes and the (glamorous, (hetero-)sexed) body beneath them. The body is the true source of glamour — it peeks out from even the dowdiest of ensembles. This body is 'petite' and 'slim' — words that connect femininity with youthfulness and (hetero)sexuality (they're often used in personal ads). These things are glamorous. Everyone wants to be glamorous. Therefore nobody wants to be…
As the story progresses, Vanessa Paradis gradually dumps her inappropriately dowdy ensemble, and her glamorous body emerges. Halfway down the page, she's pictured having a cigarette in what the Mail describes as "a pair of grey skinny jeans and black leather knee-high boots which added height to her diminutive frame." The photo is taken during a break between shoots; this, it is suggested, is how she
chooses to dress. The jeans trace the shape of her legs and emphasise her thinness; leather signifies (hetero)sexuality; and the heels correct a weakness — her lack of height. The glamorous woman is shapely, (hetero)sexual, correct(ed). The dowdy woman is…
Finally, at the bottom of the page, the transformation is complete with a picture of a "stunning red carpet look" which "Vanessa fashioned". The active tense implies a different relationship to this outfit compared with the 'dowdy ensemble', although both were probably made for her. This is the one her glamorous body deserves: it "showed off her perfect hourglass figure … while adding a touch of va-va-voom to the occasion with a slick of red lipstick." Perfect = correct. Hourglass = shapely. Red lipstick and va-va-voom = rather male-oriented symbols of female (hetero)sexuality. (A "slick" of lipstick? Connotations of oil and grease — va-va-voom. A slick is also a cheat, a swindler.)
A throwaway story about an actor wearing stage clothes on stage turns out to be full of sexual politics and ideology. Lesbianism and asexuality are conflated, identified with ugliness, and disparaged. Glamour is sexualised and heterosexualised. Female heterosexuality is located in the body, yet rules are laid down to define which bodies qualify as glamorous/heterosexual. These are the bodies that deserve nice clothes. Yours is almost certainly not one of them.
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