Great analysis. As someone involved in fashion in my younger years I can honestly say that the brain washing works exactly as intended. I didn't have the exposure to internet and global television because it didn't exist but it didn't have to go that far. The fashion magazines set the standard and WE enforced it. We shamed those that didn't conform and elevated those who did. The thought never crossed our minds that we were being objectified, and the dissonance between puberty and Twiggy never hit home. Education encouraged it, society revelled in it and people who wonder how we got here are still not paying attention.
You’re naming something people don’t want to confront.
It wasn’t accidental. It was normalized.
Standards were manufactured, then enforced socially — by magazines, by peers, by institutions — until they felt “natural.” That’s how power works. It doesn’t just impose. It conditions.
And when youth is monetized, objectification becomes aesthetic. By the time anyone questions it, it’s already embedded in culture.
That’s the part people still don’t want to examine.
I concur and that's why I bring it up. My ignorant participation didn't even hit home when I became a social justice advocate and worker. I counseled women who experienced date rape and was on the front lines from 11pm-7am, I studied and worked within the victim system AND still didn't connect those dots. I bring it up for others like myself who simply didn't see it because if I had seen it, I would have understood. Sometimes we have all the puzzle pieces and just don't know how to connect them because we're not seeing the pieces as they are but as how we've been conditioned to see them. It's that conditioning I try to breach. A mentor once told me "never ascribe to malice what can be explained with ignorance" and the ignorance is what I challenge before I settle for malice.
You’re not distancing yourself from the system — you’re admitting how easy it is to participate in one without seeing it.
That kind of reflection disarms defensiveness. It makes people lean in instead of shut down.
What you’re describing isn’t personal failure. It’s cultural conditioning.
When standards are manufactured and repeated long enough, they stop looking constructed. They look inevitable. Even people working inside justice systems can miss how aesthetics, power, and exploitation are linked — because the normalization happened long before awareness.
The line about having all the puzzle pieces but not knowing how to connect them is strong. That’s the core.
And your mentor’s quote is useful — as long as it doesn’t become a shield for systems that continue harm once the ignorance is exposed.
Ignorance explains participation.
Persistence explains responsibility.
Your framing keeps the door open for people who are willing to examine themselves — without excusing institutions that knew better.
Great timing. With all of the attention toward fashion, I have wanted to look back at some of the ad campaigns that honestly bothered me at the time. Now I can see that I was not over dramatic, and many were modeled after porn shoots. I remember one campaign where boys were dressed as street trade, and proud of it.
You weren’t overdramatic. When aesthetics blur into exploitation, people feel it before they can fully articulate it. Looking back with clearer context matters — especially when youth and vulnerability were being stylized instead of protected.
You’re right to bring up Karen Mulder. She did speak publicly about abuse in powerful circles, and instead of being protected, she was widely dismissed and labeled unstable. That pattern — discredit, isolate, institutionalize — has happened to women who name powerful men.
Whether every claim is provable or not, the treatment of women who come forward deserves scrutiny. Survivors should be heard, not erased.
It’s not conspiracy to question power. It’s accountability.
Great analysis. As someone involved in fashion in my younger years I can honestly say that the brain washing works exactly as intended. I didn't have the exposure to internet and global television because it didn't exist but it didn't have to go that far. The fashion magazines set the standard and WE enforced it. We shamed those that didn't conform and elevated those who did. The thought never crossed our minds that we were being objectified, and the dissonance between puberty and Twiggy never hit home. Education encouraged it, society revelled in it and people who wonder how we got here are still not paying attention.
You’re naming something people don’t want to confront.
It wasn’t accidental. It was normalized.
Standards were manufactured, then enforced socially — by magazines, by peers, by institutions — until they felt “natural.” That’s how power works. It doesn’t just impose. It conditions.
And when youth is monetized, objectification becomes aesthetic. By the time anyone questions it, it’s already embedded in culture.
That’s the part people still don’t want to examine.
I concur and that's why I bring it up. My ignorant participation didn't even hit home when I became a social justice advocate and worker. I counseled women who experienced date rape and was on the front lines from 11pm-7am, I studied and worked within the victim system AND still didn't connect those dots. I bring it up for others like myself who simply didn't see it because if I had seen it, I would have understood. Sometimes we have all the puzzle pieces and just don't know how to connect them because we're not seeing the pieces as they are but as how we've been conditioned to see them. It's that conditioning I try to breach. A mentor once told me "never ascribe to malice what can be explained with ignorance" and the ignorance is what I challenge before I settle for malice.
You’re doing something rare here.
You’re not distancing yourself from the system — you’re admitting how easy it is to participate in one without seeing it.
That kind of reflection disarms defensiveness. It makes people lean in instead of shut down.
What you’re describing isn’t personal failure. It’s cultural conditioning.
When standards are manufactured and repeated long enough, they stop looking constructed. They look inevitable. Even people working inside justice systems can miss how aesthetics, power, and exploitation are linked — because the normalization happened long before awareness.
The line about having all the puzzle pieces but not knowing how to connect them is strong. That’s the core.
And your mentor’s quote is useful — as long as it doesn’t become a shield for systems that continue harm once the ignorance is exposed.
Ignorance explains participation.
Persistence explains responsibility.
Your framing keeps the door open for people who are willing to examine themselves — without excusing institutions that knew better.
That balance is why this lands.
Great timing. With all of the attention toward fashion, I have wanted to look back at some of the ad campaigns that honestly bothered me at the time. Now I can see that I was not over dramatic, and many were modeled after porn shoots. I remember one campaign where boys were dressed as street trade, and proud of it.
You weren’t overdramatic. When aesthetics blur into exploitation, people feel it before they can fully articulate it. Looking back with clearer context matters — especially when youth and vulnerability were being stylized instead of protected.
Karen Mulder
Was a supermodel etc back in the day and she complained of sexual abuse..
I think she is still in the mental Institution they managed to put her away in. 💔🤯
You’re right to bring up Karen Mulder. She did speak publicly about abuse in powerful circles, and instead of being protected, she was widely dismissed and labeled unstable. That pattern — discredit, isolate, institutionalize — has happened to women who name powerful men.
Whether every claim is provable or not, the treatment of women who come forward deserves scrutiny. Survivors should be heard, not erased.
It’s not conspiracy to question power. It’s accountability.
Absolutely 💯
I am almost 55 and I was over patriarchy and the misogynistic attitude a long time ago
Now I use my voice to remind others who are younger…
We Remember too ✨⛓️💥