Fashion and passion: marketing sex to women

ATTWOOD, F. (2005). Fashion and passion: marketing sex to women. Sexualities, 8 (4), 392-406.

Preview

PDF fulltext.pdf Download (69kB) | Preview

Abstract

Against a backdrop of a ‘pornographication’ of mainstream media and the emergence of a more heavily sexualized culture, women are increasingly targeted as sexual consumers. In the UK, the success of TV shows like Sex and the City and the ‘fashion ‘n’ passion’ of sex emporia like Ann Summers suggests that late twentieth century discourses which foregrounded female pleasure have crystallised in a new form of sexual address to women. This article examines how sex products are being marketed for female consumers, focussing on the websites of sex businesses such as Myla, Babes n Horny, Beecourse, tabooboo and Ann Summers. It asks how a variety of existing discourses – of fashion, consumerism, bodily pleasure and sexuality - are drawn on in the construction of this new market, how they negotiate the dangers and pleasures of sexuality for women, and what they show about the construction of ‘new’ female sexualities.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2005 SAGE Publications
Research Institute, Centre or Group - Does NOT include content added after October 2018:	Cultural Communication and Computing Research Institute > Communication and Computing Research Centre
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460705056617
Page Range:	392-406
Depositing User:	Ann Betterton
Date Deposited:	04 Dec 2007
Last Modified:	18 Mar 2021 14:22
URI:	https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/54

Actions (login required)

View Item

Downloads

Publication Metrics