half-naked women

I found it very interesting in class the other day when we were analyzing the Guess jeans ad. We talked about what the sexy model represented and said to our subconscious when we looked at the ad. What I thought was interesting was as we were transitioning into a different topic, the prof casually referred to the model as a "half-naked woman." However the woman was fully clothed, with capri jeans on and a t shirt that covered her shoulders and her chest. The only abnormal skin showing was a few inches of skin at her midriff which is common to see on teenage girls at the mall. The woman was fully clothed and lying on her stomach but the fact that she was beautiful and on a billboard caused her to be classified as a half-naked woman. I just wonder what this says about the idea of sexiness in our society. It seems like you can't be beautiful or sexy in advertising without being put in the category of half-naked sluts who bare it all. This begs the question of whether or not there is a middle ground. Can a woman only be plain and dowdy or a hussy? Why is an attractive woman, fully clothed, referred to as "half-naked" by a socially conscious intellectual?