Cara Delevingne has been accused of promoting rape culture in a new advert, which sees her cat-called on the streets of New York.
The model-turned-actress takes a starring role in the new Jimmy Choo shoe collection campaign, showcasing the high-end designer’s new Cruise 2018 footwear line.
You can watch the advert, titled ‘Shimmer in the Dark’ below:
The video campaign comes with a tagline which reads:
Starring in the Jimmy Choo Cruise 2018 campaign, Cara Delevingne takes us out on a night in New York City.
From the pre-prep to the early hours, it’s a whirlwind of disco, sparkles and great shoes. Click play to come along for the ride.
Yet a lot of women don’t want to join Jimmy for a ride which, in their eyes, promotes and glamourises street harassment.
The campaign, designed to sell Jimmy Choo’s latest collection, has been labelled ‘sexist’ and ‘disgusting’ by observers, believing the video promotes harassment and cat-calling.
Jessica Valenti, the feminist author of Sex Object: A Memoir, tweeted:
Perhaps now is not the best moment to run an ad about how cool and sexy catcalling is?
Many more replied to Jimmy Choo’s now-deleted Twitter status, which dropped the ad campaign.
They chimed in, telling the fashion house to ‘read the room’:
Undeniably, the ad is in very poor taste considering the current climate. It’s equally surprising for Delevingne to be attached.
The 25-year-old Suicide Squad star has recently returned to fashion after a conscious hiatus from the industry, citing battles with mental health problems.
Delevingne has consistently used her huge social media platform to speak out in defence of victims of sexual harassment and to champion women’s rights, through campaigns such as Lady Garden.
So, her choice to participate in the Jimmy Choo advert seems, at very least, off-brand and at worst, an ethical oversight.
Delevingne was one of many women in the public eye who came forward to bravely reveal details of the abuse she suffered at the hands of Harvey Weinstein.
Taking to Instagram, Cara recalled how the co-founder of Miramax, Harvey Weinstein, shamed her for her sexuality and sexually harassed her, leaving the up-and-coming film talent feeling ‘very powerless and scared’.
In the Instagram post, Cara recalled a horrifying encounter with Weinstein:
When I first started to work as an actress, I was working on a film and I received a call from Harvey Weinstein asking if I had slept with any of the women I was seen out with in the media.
It was a very odd and uncomfortable call…
I answered none of his questions and hurried off the phone but before I hung up, he said to me that if I was gay or decided to be with a woman, especially in public, that I’d never get the role of a straight woman or make it as an actress in Hollywood.
Cara continued:
A year or two later, I went to a meeting with him in the lobby of a hotel with a director about an upcoming film.
The director left the meeting and Harvey asked me to stay and chat with him.
As soon as we were alone he began to brag about all the actresses he’d slept with and how he’d made their careers and spoke about other inappropriate things of a sexual nature. He then invited me to his room.
She declined, but added she felt ‘powerless’:
I quickly declined and asked his assistant if my car was outside. She said it wasn’t and wouldn’t be for a bit and I should go to his room.
At that moment I felt very powerless and scared but didn’t want to act that way, hoping I was wrong about the situation.
When I arrived I was relieved to find another woman in his room and thought immediately I was safe.
He asked us to kiss and she began some sort of advances upon his direction.
How Cara responded was both brave and quick-thinking:
I swiftly got up and asked him if he knew that I could sing and I began to sing… I thought it would make the situation better… more professional… like an audition… I was so nervous.
After singing I said again, I had to leave. He walked me to the door and stood in front of it and tried to kiss me on the lips.
I stopped him and managed to get out of the room.
Her revelations came just days after Weinstein was fired over allegations of sexual abuse, dating back throughout his career, which could land him five to 25 years in prison on sexual assault charges if tried in criminal court.
Cara managed to escape, but has since been part of a silence-breaking movement of women and men who are coming forward to condemn the Weinstein culture, which allowed this sexual harassment to continue.
The Jimmy Choo ad campaign, which she is now the face of, dropped on November 8 this year and has since received 3,989,770 views.
It seems to stand in direct opposition to everything the silence-breakers have achieved in spreading the message that any sexual harassment, occurring anytime, anywhere, is never okay.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.