Knocking pimpdom off its fashion pedestal

Pimp used to be a dirty word. To be accused of dressing or acting like one was an incontrovertible term of abuse. Now, however, it is the height of fashion. At least to some.

"Pimp chic" has entered mainstream culture, with the music industry, luxury shops, clothes designers and even airlines adopting symbols of the culture to advertise their products. Sharp-suited men with scowls, skimpily clad women looking up to them in awe, flash cars and lots of bling may be nothing new when it comes to selling glamour and "cool", but observers say they are becoming increasingly concerned about the effect of marketing these images, especially to children.

Dame Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, hit out yesterday at the trend. She said: "A lot of people seem to think that it's cool to be a pimp or whore. It's not cool. The reality is dark, evil and appalling and unregulated. The reality is sex trafficking, which is about young women being forced into rooms to have sex however many times a day so that the pimp can take all the money."

She added: "There are thousands of ads, mostly focused on women and young girls, that say you are not attractive, you are not sexy, you are not intelligent, unless you look like this.

"In kids' magazines there is a passivity and a stupidity that is seen as a great way forward. Something has gone very wrong."

Roddick criticised stars such as Beyonce and Britney Spears for simulating sex in their music videos, and highlighted the trend among some hip-hop artists to make porn films to be marketed alongside the graphic lyrics of their songs. "What we have now is what I call 'pimp and ho chic' with all aspects of the sex industry presented as hip and cool," she said. "Pole dancing as exercise, lap-dancing clubs as places to see celebrities, fancy-dress balls and the everyday use of the words 'bitch' and 'ho' to refer to women are just some of the examples I have come across."

Film director Spike Lee has also hit out at pimp culture, using a lecture at the University of Florida this month to criticise rap stars such as Snoop Dogg for glamourising prostitution at the same time as reinforcing stereotypes about black men.

He said: "We are bombarded by these gangsta images again and again and again and again ... they do make a difference to human behaviour. No one gets upset any more that pimpdom gets elevated on a pedestal."

It is not just the music world that has embraced pimp chic with such fervour. Richard Branson's airline Virgin Atlantic launched an advertising campaign for its new Upper Class airport clubhouse last year that featured the slogan: "Pimp My Lounge."

The department store Selfridges ran prominent advertisements last Christmas depicting a man in "pimp chic" clothes, holding a glass of champagne, with two semi-naked women draped over him. Alongside the image, a strapline read: "Get your Christmas booty."

Last week Madonna - no stranger to raunchy videos and suggestive choreography - appeared on the MTV show Pimp My Ride, in which the DJ Tim Westwood turns ordinary cars into bling-laden vehicles. And Hustle and Flow, a film about a pimp who becomes a gangsta rapper, won a $24 million distribution deal at the most recent Sundance Film Festival - the biggest movie deal in the event's history.

Fashion has also embraced the trend, with labels such as Phat Pimp Clothing in London and the "pimp" style of singers such as Andre 3000 from the band Outkast being copied in the pages of glossy magazines. In his hit "Pimp Juice", the rap star Nelly included lines about luxury labels such as Prada, Gucci and Dolce e Gabbana.

Stacy Gillis, an expert in feminism at Newcastle University, believes that "pimp and ho chic" stereotypes black men and objectifies women. She commented: "It is about a white, middle class, Anglo-American culture which picks up on little bits and pieces of another society and class but doesn't really engage with it on a political level.

"There is a disenfranchised part of US society that does glamourise the pimp and fetishises their power and that has transferred over here as well. But it is grotesque in that we are talking about women who are extremely disenfranchised and it is about the complete sexualisation of female identity."

Dr Gillis is particularly concerned about the way in which pimp chic is now being marketed to children. The Playboy brand, for example, now has a best-selling line of pink and black pencil cases, stationery and clothes which the company says is aimed at teenagers, but which has proved to be even more popular with primary school-age girls.

High-street stores such as WH Smith have come in for severe criticism for selling the Playboy brand but have refused to stop doing so.

Dr Gillis said: "I have seen girls as young as four wearing boob tubes and T-shirts with slogans like 'So many boys, so little time'. They look up to people like Jordan and want a Playboy pencil case and watch a Beyonce video. I find it deeply disturbing that we are sexualising girls' bodies at such a young age.

"Pimp culture is part of the backlash against feminism, in which 'post feminism' is seen as being all about choice - that it's OK to get my tits out because it's my choice and that makes me a feminist. Well, no, it doesn't."

But is pimp culture really so bad? Jonathan Freeman, a lecturer in youth culture and marketing at the Warwick Business School, believes not.

"I don't think the word pimp may have the same connotation for some young people and children as it has for people like Anita Roddick. They do not imbue it with the same malevolence, and if you look at something like the Virgin Atlantic campaign, it could be viewed as a bit of fun.

"I am not saying that it is right, but I think that different people will see it in a different light."

- INDEPENDENT