In a world dominated by marketing and hype, a combination of fashion, media and celebrity has the potential to be at the vanguard of socio-cultural transformation. Hollywood actress Demi Moore’s nude portraits on the  cover of Vanity Fair, the first time, in a state of advanced pregnancy and the second time, in a ‘suit’ painted on by the world’s leading body painting artist, Joanne Gair — both photographed by the highly accomplished Annie Leibovitz — for instance, sparked off  a raging controversy when they appeared, in the early nineties. The pregnancy cover in particular evoked a flurry of protest by those who felt it was obscene.  

Looking back, one can gauge how the photographs in fact forced people the world over to confront traditional perceptions and ideas. They challenged prevailing concepts of childbearing and the bodily changes associated with it for instance, perceptions of power relations between the sexes, of gender definition, of nudity, shame and, above all,  concepts of what could be considered beautiful.  

Nudity or overt sexuality has often and famously been used as an effective tool to jolt society out of jaded notions. Madonna, a leading agent provocateur in this respect, turned misogyny on its head with her armoury of pointy bras and corsets and explicitly sexual videos. Other fashion-conscious pop and rock icons like David Bowie and Gwen Stefani, for instance, have used flamboyance and personal style to confront perceptions on androgyny and  materialism. Jean Paul Gaultier, the enfant terrible of the fashion world  put buxom women and elderly men and  pierced and heavily tattooed models in his shows to rousing effect. . 

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