The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard arguments about whether the Federal Communications Commission must stop punishing broadcasters for uses of expletives and nudity (See NPR on FCC Case). The legal questions concerned whether there are clear enough standards for identifying what's obscene and whether the public airwaves should be free of obscentity. We can all wish the justices luck as they try to distinguish the nudity displayed on the walls of the Supreme Court and "wardrobe malfunctions" during football halftime shows. But I am more interested in the psychological issues about motivation. Titillation sells; but is titillation about pleasure or about power?
I was talking with two young women about a rock concert they had attended over the weekend. The concert had been held in a sports arena. As people made their way in, women were invited to bare their breasts for broadcast on the Jumbotron.
"Why would anyone do that?" I asked.
They shrugged. "No one thinks it's a big deal."
The layers of irony here are apparent. The official party-line that makes displaying your breasts on the Jumbotron "no big deal" is the "Plain Sex" lens. This lens sees sex as about pleasure and nothing else (see my earlier blog posts "Looking for joy in sex?" and "20/20 Sexual Vision"). Plain Sex holds the naive view that as long as sexuality is deployed in a context of mutual consent, no one is getting hurt. But flashing your breasts on the big screen has more to do with power than pleasure. Women who put themselves on display think they are freely choosing to express their sexuality. If a woman's "rack" gets more applause than the last one, she gets an ego-boost. But what's happening has more to do with men than with female competition. The standards of comparison are set by male eyes, even when women are looking.
The real winners are the concert organizers. They have revved up the crowd without having to cut into their phenomenal profit margin.
Author Susan J. Douglas has coined the useful term "enlightened sexism" (see The Rise of Enlightened Sexism). Enlightened sexism sells the story that, now that women have gained economic and social equality with men, women can "have it all." "Having it all" means not just career success, along with a mate and children, if you want those. "Having it all" means using your body and your sexuality to attract male lust. Enlightened sexism celebrates the "empowerment" of women--touting "girl power" as a new version of feminism. Women should exert power in the corporate boardroom and keep their figure sleek by going to pole-dancing class in the evening. Hillary Clinton by day; sex kitten by night. The "enlightened" in "enlightened sexism" is ironic.
The underpinnings of enlightened sexism are exploitive commercialism. Enlightened sexism allowed those who came up with concept for the Girls Gone Wild videos to produce soft pornographic footage while keeping their overhead costs at bargain-basement levels. It also allowed those rock concert organizers to give their audience no-cost pre-event entertainment. But what is the real cost for women?
Douglas's book unmasks the exploitation that occurs when Plain Sex disguises what can be seen by looking at sex through what I call the Power lens. The Power lens highlights sexuality as a potent instrument for controlling others.
Keep your eyes peeled for enlightened sexism the next time you watch a TV show or a music video or a commercial--especially commercials hawking beauty products, women's fashions or the latest no-fail diet. Whether or not you buy the product, don't buy into sham "empowerment" for women.
