New Yorker Cover Essay

The main objective of industry is undeniably profit. As a society, we can criticize the steps these businesses take towards this idea of profit, yet somehow we still get swept up in the gravitational pull of advertisement, marketing, and at times, lies. One of the most notorious users of manipulation to increase sales is the fashion industry. It’s difficult to escape the new definition of beauty, style, or trendiness plastered on every “fashion-forward” magazine. But it’s even harder to escape the natural tendency to accept the standards being fed to us straight from the hands of those who benefit from them. The New Yorker’s cover for its Style Issue titled “Object of Desire” conveys the futile attempt of the majority to attain the predacious

Not only does this clever name allude to the obvious hunger expressed by the cat, but also hints at the meaningless of products promoted by the fashion industry. The word “object” brings to mind the culture of materialism fostered by the fashion industry to bolster sales. Through aggressive advertising, clothing and beauty companies try to convince consumers they will feel or look a certain way, the “correct way,” if they purchase a good. This marketing technique creates something more powerful than a desire for the product, it creates hunger. Consumers are tricked into thinking that they will only be satiated if they purchase the product. In the end, they’ve only bought an object which cannot actually fill their hunger for something more meaningful, like beauty. The literal and metaphorical imagery are continued in the piece’s exploration of how the fashion industry and the majority of consumers are

Analogously, society as a whole will never attain the elusive standard of beauty put forth by industry. Upon first glance of “Object of Desire” the image of Tweety Bird and Sylvester the Cat are recalled from nostalgic memories of early morning Saturday cartoons. The prevalent visual motif of a cat eying a caged bird is used to express elusiveness, as the cat can never open the door or even reach the cage. In this New Yorker cover, the cage serves to illustrate two different aspects of the fashion industry’s need for the cage. The metal bars act to not only keep the cat out but keep the shoe inside. Thus, the cage conveys the restrictive hold the fashion industry has over fashion itself. To maintain control of their market, businesses must define what fashionable or beautiful looks like, or else risk someone else profiting from any other definition. A more obvious means to control market are the attempts to keep the cat out of reach by placing the prey inside the