By Caitlin Roper
Ryan Gosling gets it. As his character asserts in the 2011 film Crazy, Stupid, Love, “The war between the sexes is over. We won the second women started doing pole dancing for exercise.”
It’s a humorous line because it’s actually quite insightful. Men “won” when women not only tolerated, but embraced their subordination.
This idea that women find power in conforming to their assigned role as sexual objects is not just paramount to third-wave, liberal feminism, but also increasingly serves as a convenient justification for corporates who want to appear socially progressive while still exploiting women’s bodies and sexuality to sell products.
A recent Honey Birdette shop window depictionTake for instance sex shop Honey Birdette, which promotes itself as a high-end lingerie retailer. It’s a company that has a long history of using highly sexualised, borderline pornographic, sometimes BDSM themed advertising in shopping centres around the country.
Its shop front windows are plastered with massive, pornified images of women’s bodies and even just parts of their bodies, accompanied by slogans like “Tasty Treats,” suggesting women’s bodies are things to be consumed.
It should come as no great surprise that the company has attracted numerous complaints for its sexist advertisements over the years, making the top ten in the Advertising Standards Board’s most complained about list last year. Just last month, Honey Birdette’s latest ad campaign was found to be in breach of industry codes and standards that require advertisers to treat sex, sexuality and nudity with sensitivity to the relevant audience.
In response, “exasperated” owner Eloise Monaghan told news.com.au that Honey Birdette promoted “female empowerment.”
In a cultural context where women’s sexuality and reproductive capacities have traditionally been controlled by men, female empowerment or women “owning” their sexuality may be viewed as a welcome development. But what does legitimate female sexual empowerment look like? Who is sexually empowered, and on what basis?
Representations of so-called female sexual empowerment in mainstream media and in pornography appear to replicate the same gendered dynamics that already exist. They involve women being publicly sexual, exposing their bodies and mimicking porn inspired poses and acts. The basis of this empowerment, as far as I can tell, is women being sexually appealing to men, being desired by men and for the most part, being sexually submissive….
…Floor to ceiling pornified images of women have real-life consequences for women and girls. We deserve better than this. We deserve better than routine sexual subordination repackaged as female empowerment. If empowerment is our goal, we won’t find it within the commercial interests of companies like Honey Birdette.
