Junk for Code

Sex: it's everywhere

This captures the double standard about sexuality in contemporary culture. It states the obvious:

"We live in an age where the use of imagery in the media and advertising is highly sexualised....What drives the fashion industry and labels such as Westco is profit. And what the gen X audience knows is that sex sells fashion. That certain politicians and government officials don't understand this is almost quaint and reflects how out of touch with contemporary attitudes on sex and advertising many of them are."

Fashion has been playing around with sex all the time, as can be seen from a cursory glance at the edgy 70’s fashion photography of Guy Bourdin at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Guy Bourdin, Topless

It is certainly true that some politicians in Victoria decry the use of sex in a fashion campaign---a T-shirt slogan that says "stop pretending you don't want me", yet turn a blind eye to the Victorian Government supporting the recent Melbourne Fashion Week with its events and media coverage filled with images of half-naked male and female models. Others ignore the State Government-promotion of the Formula 1 Grand Prix, which plays on the sex-sells message with its mix of grid girls, fast cars and drivers.

Formula 1 Melbourne 2004 supporting move to ban various films and television programs they happen to consider to inappropriate for public consumption. Others point the finger at the sexual behaviour of teenagers whilst ignoring the sexual imagery in the mediascape all around them.

Update

Meanwhile the old style academic modernists who decry the "postmodernist irony" of popular culture, rightfully reminds us about the important of class. But they ignore the visual culture that enframes us. Their tone of hostility indicates something more: the old science versus the humanities divide/war surfacing? This time around it is the queen of the social sciences (not the natural sciences) versus the humanities (rhetoric).

Only rarely do the economists acknowledge the rhetoric embodied in their science, or acknowledge that markets work in terms of rhetoric (persuasion).

Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at April 2, 2004 04:14 PM | TrackBack