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A World Made Sexy: Freud to Madonna
The cult of eroticism is a pervasive force in modern society, affecting almost every aspect of our daily lives. In this book, Paul Rutherford argues that this phenomenon is a product of one of the major commercial and political enterprises of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: the creation of desire - for sex, for wealth, and for entertainment.
A World Made Sexy examines museum exhibitions, art, books, magazines, films, and television to explore the popular rise of eroticism in America and across the developed world. Starting with a brief foray into the history of pornography, Rutherford goes on to explore a sexual liberation movement shaped by the ideas of Marx and Freud, the erotic styles of Salvador Dali and pop art, the pioneering use of publicity as erotica by Playboy and other media, and the growing concerns of cultural critics over the emergence of a regime of stimulation. In one case study, Rutherford pairs James Bond and Madonna in order to examine the link between sex and aggression. He details how television advertising after 1980 constructed a theatre of the libido to entice the buying public, and concludes by situating the cultivation of eroticism in the wider context of Michel Foucault's views on social power and governmentality, and specifically how they relate to sexuality, during the modern era.
A World Made Sexy is about power and pleasure, emancipation and domination, and the relationship between the personal passions and social controls that have crafted desire.
A World Made Sexy examines museum exhibitions, art, books, magazines, films, and television to explore the popular rise of eroticism in America and across the developed world. Starting with a brief foray into the history of pornography, Rutherford goes on to explore a sexual liberation movement shaped by the ideas of Marx and Freud, the erotic styles of Salvador Dali and pop art, the pioneering use of publicity as erotica by Playboy and other media, and the growing concerns of cultural critics over the emergence of a regime of stimulation. In one case study, Rutherford pairs James Bond and Madonna in order to examine the link between sex and aggression. He details how television advertising after 1980 constructed a theatre of the libido to entice the buying public, and concludes by situating the cultivation of eroticism in the wider context of Michel Foucault's views on social power and governmentality, and specifically how they relate to sexuality, during the modern era.
A World Made Sexy is about power and pleasure, emancipation and domination, and the relationship between the personal passions and social controls that have crafted desire.
- GenresSchool
371 pages, Hardcover
First published August 11, 2007
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August 11, 2020
A historical study on the culture of sexy in Western society is a welcomed one, for Rutherford accurately points out that our world has become increasingly obsessed with the capitalism and aesthetics of sex. However, this book is not that study as Rutherford is unable (or unwilling) to see beyond the Wester white heterosexual male gaze he possesses to give this study the complexity it requires. He is so blinded by his own limiting understand of sexuality, that he fails to pause and consider other viewpoints on approaches to sexuality. This is perhaps one of the inherent limitations in having the world be structured to cater to your desires, interests, and gaze as it becomes second-nature to assume your viewpoint on 'sexy' is the default for all.
Also, this cover is atrocious. For a book that doesn't really delve into the obsession with youth (for which I will give him some space as discussing sexual predation is a different topic) putting the body of a 'barely legal' woman on the cover is tacky.
(Read this book for my PhD comps)
Also, this cover is atrocious. For a book that doesn't really delve into the obsession with youth (for which I will give him some space as discussing sexual predation is a different topic) putting the body of a 'barely legal' woman on the cover is tacky.
(Read this book for my PhD comps)
Displaying 1 of 1 review