Sex for Sale!
Well, based on the fact that you've clicked in certainly answers my question, does sex sell?
Sex is no longer the taboo concept as it formally once was. Don’t believe me? Ask your parents (if you’re brave enough). Sex was a touchy concept in the 80’s, I mean contraception was only brought into Ireland in 1980. Now, you could nearly get the morning after pill with your Jagerbombs in the club. Sex is no longer personal or intimate, it’s EVERYWHERE. In magazines, social media, its a booming trade and successful industry, so if sex does really sell, what is the cost?
Victoria’s Secret, ironic really because nothing about it is secretive. Its a multi million industry and a universally well known line of clothes (if you could call it that) that sells a sex life, a false one, but a sex life nonetheless. The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show itself pursues the idea that you cannot be good at seduction without the right equipment. In its entirety it is selling sex, they hire the sexiest women in the world to wear the sexiest line of lingerie, but it comes with a price. The 2016 show which took place in the city of Paris came to the cost of approximately $20 Million, its most expensive show to date. While I cannot breakdown the entire (crazy) costs of this sex show I can give you a little insight. One, (yes one) bra cost $3 million! the namely ‘Fantasy Bra’ is not even a sale item , it is often deconstructed and the stones (the expensive parts) are reused elsewhere.
Its unbelievably misleading, the airbrushed, contoured, blow dried models who have undergone serious personal training and cleanses prior to the show mislead the consumers, they may be selling sex but nobody will look like that in the bedroom. The $40 bras do not come with the perky boobs or killer abs if anything it just amplifies my conscience telling me I should not have had that Krispy Krème last Thursday.
So Victoria Secret sells unachievable body standards (like we didn't already know that) but in the last couple of years a new campaign has emerged that fights for the women caught in the dark side, domestic violence. The urgency in recent years to suppress this brutality may have been catalyzed by a certain trilogy of risqué books, so my question is when does kink turn to kick?
Sex took on a whole new level of crazy in the early months of 2015, Valentine’s day to be exact, when Mr Christian Grey emerged on our screens. While the bestselling novels were published in the years previous to the film release, the whole world was introduced into this chaotic fantasy world of BDSM. First there was the book, then the movie , then the merchandise and now in a shocking turn of events, there is now a hotel that sells the rather disturbing fantasy that is the red room of pain, and if you don’t know what that is, I would certainly give anything to forget it. BDSM is essentially a relationship based on dominance and control. Sex has taken on a whole new world of crazy because let’s be honest, if Christian Grey was unemployed and not Jamie Dornan, this movie would have been more like an episode of Criminal Minds. The movie has devised this delusional idea that BDSM is somewhat okay and permissible. I could not imagine a more f*cked up situation, I mean each to their own but if my boyfriend had a secret red room of pain and asked me to sign a contract to be a submissive, I might as well just spit on the graves of the suffragettes and every other woman that fought tirelessly for equal rights (not to mention that I would probably run and never look back).
BDSM is a fancy way of saying I like to beat my partner. BDSM should stand for Bloody Demon Sex Monster. I have read the trilogy, watched the first (terrible) movie and I can honestly say that while you may laugh about how ridiculous it is, it exists. I have met and spoken to actual BDSM couples, I mean I love collars but I draw the line when a lead is attached to it. The woman never spoke unless he permitted and with a snap of his fingers she would retreat into her submissive position. It was pathetic and in that one swift move, I felt inferior to any man, no woman should feel that way. Uncomfortable was not the word to justly describe how I felt in those briefs moments I met them.
Sex is an activity between two people and that makes it their business and their business only. Then celebrity sex tapes emerged and it went from a twosome to a viralsome. Did you know that Porn is the reason we have Netflix? Porn was the driving force of Internet developments in its early stages and was the highest used website in the early 2000’s. The entire of process of streaming and downloading content off the Internet was founded through Porn sites. Therefore it is no surprise that after Netflix launched we were swiftly introduced into the term ‘Netflix and Chill’. A unique term that sells sex without actually saying ‘we sell sex’.
If you think about it, sex is everywhere. For instance, sex is sold in the one place that could be possible the least sexiest place in the world, bathrooms. Go into any bathroom in a bar or a club and there you have it, condoms, the barrier that promises sex without the strings attached.
The openness of sex is of both greatness and utter shit. We live in a world where women are allowed to feel sexy, we are told to love our bodies, walk with confidence, wear sexy clothes and sexy makeup. It’s great, empowering even but somewhere down the line this empowerment and freedom has been manipulated and distorted to the point where if a woman dresses a certain way it paves the way for scum to justify sexual assault, “asking for it”, utter shit, and every woman can understand that sort of cost on their lives. Sex sells more than we bargain for. It sells unachievable body standards, domestic violence, sexual assault justification and high expectations. Sex is great but it comes (pun intended) with a price, so let’s leave it between the sheets shall we?
