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Russian spy-turned-model puts a hostage on display at Moscow Fashion Week

Did you hear? Women holding men prisoner at gunpoint is the new black.

Yes, ladies. At Moscow Fashion Week, former Russian spy Anna Chapman modeled a shearling coat by Shiyan and Rudkovskaya, and a pistol by Makarov.

She completed the look with a POW (prisoner of war) played by Russian singer Dima Bilan with a semi-automatic at his throat.

Images like this one are horrifying for so many reasons.  For starters, I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I put together an outfit, my accessories do not include a man looking down the barrel of a real gun. Nor a fake gun. My accessories, in fact, do not include any human beings of any kind, because people are not things.

Secondarily, memories of PFC Lynndie England are still dancing in my head. Those infamous photos — a real life woman smiling alongside real life prisoners — shocked and horrified the world, and for good reason.

Now, this is not the first time the “Lady + Gun = TOTAL HOTNESS, GUYS, AMIRITE???” equation has been on display. From Tomb Raider to Terminator, these images unmistakably link sex with violence.  There’s even a song by Styx called “Girls with Guns” in which a lyric reads, “She’s the target now.”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25dSxa8-LdQ[/youtube]

Indeed, this isn’t even the first time that Chapman has posed with a gun.  But by upping the ante by including a model as a prisoner of war, Moscow designers Ilya Shiyan and Yana Rudkovskaya showed a total lack of style.

— Heidi

3 thoughts on “Russian spy-turned-model puts a hostage on display at Moscow Fashion Week”

  2. I think that, while tasteless, this is one of those things that can’t really be helped. It’s sensational, yes, and calls up memories of more serious instances of sex and violenc ebeing linked, but what do you do? Images of violence are commonplace, and this isn’t changing. Sado/masochism is a growing subculture, swords and guns are seen as accesories,and explosions are as neccesary to an action movie as a soundtrack. Who are we to judge someone’s taste, unless it directly causes unconsensual pain?

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