June 07, 2007
More fretting about the "over-sexed" culture
Yes, I know: I have been writing a lot recently about sexuality and popular culture. I thought that some of you might like a break from the normal fare of more egghead topics. And the news of late has been full of silliness in this area: from the legislative outcry over strippers in Ohio, to nude group photos in Amsterdam.
Now a writer for the Associated Press has made a discovery: sex sells, and some people will try to use their sexuality to attain fame, status, and wealth. Moreover, this tactic is apparently new:
So the message is clear: In today's world, sex doesn't just sell. The pervasiveness of porn has made sexiness -- from subtle to raunchy -- a much-sought-after attribute online, at school and even at work.
Many agree that the trend has had a particularly strong influence on young women -- in some cases, taking shape as an unapologetic embracing of sexuality and exhibitionism.
"I am one of those girls," says Holly Eglinton, a 31-year-old Canadian who recently won a talent search competition to appear as an unclothed newscaster on the Internet's "Naked News." She auditioned after meeting a producer for the show on a social networking site where she's posted provocative photos of herself -- an increasingly common practice. --CNN.com
I have commented before about the Naked News, which strikes me more as a poor business concept than a threat to public morals. (I just hope that Lou Dobbs doesn’t decide to imitate the NN newscasters.) But what do we really have here? Holly Eglinton, an attractive young woman, has used her sex appeal to her advantage. Perish forbid.
This isn’t exactly an innovation. Cleopatra used her sexuality as a lever to negotiate with two powerful men who ruled the Roman Empire. Josephine de Beauharnais used her sexuality to capture the attention of Napoleon Bonaparte. (Before she met Napoleon, the widowed Josephine maintained a string of wealthy men who collectively kept her in the lap of luxury.) Marilyn Monroe gained the attention of President Kennedy----and some say, access to the White House. She didn’t get there because of her insights into U.S.-Soviet relations. As most readers will already know, Monroe was having an affair with the president.
The above examples might seem to reflect badly on women. This is not my intention: more men would strategically use their sexuality, if only they could. But nature has ordained that males are in supply, and females are in demand. So if someone is doing something stupid in the pursuit of sex, that someone is probably a man. This means that if Hillary Clinton does win the White House in 2008, there likely won’t be a male version of Monica Lewinsky.
Then there is the issue of exhibitionism. The aforementioned article suggests that public sexuality is a new thing---and that it was invented by Generation Y and its celebrity cohorts. (The author cites Britney Spears and the Pussycat Dolls.)
The AP writer is giving Generation Y way too much credit here. In the 1970s, scantily clad pictures of Farrah Fawcett and Bo Derek were everywhere: ads for posters of the sexy starlets even appeared in the Spiderman and Fantastic Four comic books that I used to read.
“Britney Spears has earned as much attention for her sexuality as she has for her music.”
Nothing new here, either. A gazillion singers and actresses have taken off their clothes for Playboy over the years as a way to enhance their fame: Suzanne Somers, LaToya Jackson, Julie McCollough, etc. etc. Sexuality has also been incorporated into musical performances---usually mediocre ones. Madonna was garnering tsk-tsk attention this way when Britney Spears was still in grade school.
Once again: why don’t more men get in on the act? Especially attractive male celebrities sometimes try to cash in this way---with limited results. During the 1980s, pretty boy rock bands in spandex were all the rage for a while. But a guy flaunting his stuff just doesn’t have the same marketing potential. Guy stuff is everywhere, after all. It has no scarcity value. Let’s face it, as a gender, we’re easy.
Female sexuality is infinitely more exploitable because it does have scarcity value. And if Holly Eglinton wants to give herself an edge by flaunting her physical attributes on Naked News, that’s none of my business, and none of yours, either. These attributes are, after all, hers to flaunt. One of Ms. Eglinton’s colleagues, Victoria Sinclair, “left a job in the corporate world to join the show as lead anchor in 1999 -- and never looked back.” No one who has spent much time in a corporate cubicle farm would blame her.
But the article closes on a cautionary note that I agree with:
"To be sure, it can make you feel powerful to know that you are arousing strong feelings in other people, that you have their attention and admiration," says Eileen Zurbriggen, a psychologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz…
"This is the same sense of power experienced by charismatic rock stars and politicians. But politicians also wield other kinds of power. They can make actual changes to the legal, economic, and geopolitical landscapes -- changes that have far-ranging impacts.
"Women," she says, "might be better off developing other sources of power."
While sex sells, buyers are fickle; and there is always more attractive competition waiting in the wings. So Holly Eglinton should enjoy the Naked News gig, if that’s what she wants to do. But she might be wise to continue her education at the same time.