ABSTRACT
Levi Strauss & Co. and the Levi’s brand incorporate cultural conceptions of ex-girlfriends, genitals, and masculinity into their online marketing of Ex-Girlfriend jeans for men. The company and brand consumers assert that the pants evoke the style of ex-girlfriends and provide a fit designed for men. However, negative commenters in other Internet forums suggest that the references to women and tight fit result in a product that renders men as feminine and gay. In a related manner, consumers reflect on how the company’s store policy about guns changes the brand and masculinity. Narratives about the intimacy of Levi’s Ex-Girlfriend jeans, which are imagined to deliver a trace of ex-girlfriends and to reflect the form of the wearer, are mediated and structured but sometimes these goods and the associated attributes are thought to be natural features of sexed individuals. People’s correlation of deeply coded Ex-Girlfriend jeans with investments in natural and dyadic sex positions and genitals points to some of the ways men’s penises are culturally constructed, gendered, and read. Literature on cultural genitals, intimacy, and jeans is employed to suggest how people’s admiration and rejection of Ex-Girlfriend jean wearers produce normative masculinity online.
