The Pirelli Calendar: mixed reactions to a new look

Posted on by Margaret Gilroy

The end of year signals time to change old calendars for new ones. A staple in the holiday calendar tradition has been the Pirelli Calendar, often featuring thin women in very little clothing. While the 2015 calendar featured women of color as well a model over 40, every model was in an over-sexualized pose that gave very little insight on who they are as women.

While the calendar has been tailored to fit Pirelli’s largely male clientele, photographer Annie Leibovitz decided to change the calendar’s direction. Leibovitz chose to photograph 13 influential women of varying ages, backgrounds and body types including Yao Chen, Natalia Vodianova, Kathleen Kennedy, Yoko Ono, Amy Schumer and Serena Williams. Leibovitz captured not only the beauty of the women, but also their personalities, career and accomplishments. While some women chose to wear clothing, others put a new twist on the scantily-clad tradition.

The calendar’s decision to feature a more diverse set of women than in year’s past has received praise from both viewers and the models themselves. Many noted the groundbreaking nature of the calendar’s new direction and the lens in which the calendar portrayed the 13 women. 

However, others did not like this break from tradition. Many Twitter users resented the seemingly political direction the calendar took, while others criticized the calendar’s switch for continuing to feature wealthy privileged women. Some, while in the minority, just missed looking at traditional models.

Whether or not this calendar signals a cultural shift will not be able to be determined until the 2017 calendar is unveiled. While embracing atypical body types always comes with the risk of skinny shaming, the calendar opened up important conversation about how we value women, their appearance and accomplishments.

3 thoughts on “The Pirelli Calendar: mixed reactions to a new look”

  1. This has been an intriguing news I would say and you have put it up really well. This ties back to the major debate happening around ‘body image’ and quite pertinent at this point. However, whether it is a cultural shift or just an aptly timed marketing strategy, that’s yet another discussion.

    1. I agree, this certainly could be a marketing decision. If so, it just may be working, because it was put the calendar on several people’s radar. We’ll have to see what they do next year.

  2. To be honest, I had never heard of the Pirelli Calendar before this year. I guess that is because I’m not part of the intended audience? Anyway, this year it seemed to blow up all my social media accounts in one day, which prompted me to look into it more myself. So if the new look was done just to attract attention, I would say it worked. I saw so many people talking about this calendar, and I don’t ever remember hearing about it through my social media in years before. I think anytime something is a little different from the norm, it draws attention. Sometimes I think people are quick to label things like this as “groundbreaking” and give it honors, but I believe it’s still too early to tell if this will actually make any kind of other changes. I do see it as a step in the right direction though. I think it is important that at least this is getting people talking about certain issues like body image and how we depict women.

    You did a great job organizing and selecting the reactions to include. Personally, I really loved Amy Schumer’s photo and her tweet that accompanied it.

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