A World Made Sexy: Freud to Madonna - Softcover

Rutherford, Paul

3.55

11 ratings by Goodreads

9780802094667: A World Made Sexy: Freud to Madonna

Softcover

ISBN 10: 080209466X ISBN 13: 9780802094667

Publisher: University of Toronto Press, 2007

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The cult of eroticism is a pervasive force in modern society, affecting almost every aspect of our daily lives. In this book, Paul Rutherford argues that this phenomenon is a product of one of the major commercial and political enterprises of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: the creation of desire - for sex, for wealth, and for entertainment. A World Made Sexy examines museum exhibitions, art, books, magazines, films, and television to explore the popular rise of eroticism in America and across the developed world. Starting with a brief foray into the history of pornography, Rutherford goes on to explore a sexual liberation movement shaped by the ideas of Marx and Freud, the erotic styles of Salvador Dali and pop art, the pioneering use of publicity as erotica by Playboy and other media, and the growing concerns of cultural critics over the emergence of a regime of stimulation. In one case study, Rutherford pairs James Bond and Madonna in order to examine the link between sex and aggression. He details how television advertising after 1980 constructed a theatre of the libido to entice the buying public, and concludes by situating the cultivation of eroticism in the wider context of Michel Foucault's views on social power and governmentality, and specifically how they relate to sexuality, during the modern era. A World Made Sexy is about power and pleasure, emancipation and domination, and the relationship between the personal passions and social controls that have crafted desire.

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Review:

'A World Made Sexy is a clear and Lucid account of how sex came to permeate popular culture in the late twentieth century. Rutherford demonstrates considerable expertise in advertising history; nonetheless, the book is written for an interdisciplinary audience and should appeal to anyone interested in the question of why sexuality plays such a prominent role in commercial culture.' - Kristen Hatch: Journal of the History of Sexuality, vol 20:02:2011

Synopsis:

Eroticism is a constant presence in modern society, encompassing almost every aspect of our daily lives. It is a product of one of the major commercial and political enterprises of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: the cultivation of desire - desire for sex, desire for wealth, desire for entertainment. Paul Rutherford's "A World Made Sexy" looks at modern civilization's ongoing project to manufacture and encourage public wants, building a utopia where just about everyone (who is affluent) dreams, plays, and, of course, shops. "A World Made Sexy" uses museum exhibitions, art, books, magazines, films, and television to examine the rise and purpose of eroticism, first in America but soon across the affluent world. Starting with a brief foray into the representation of history as past pornography, Rutherford explores a sexual liberation movement shaped by the ideas of Marx and Freud, the erotic styles of Salvador Dali and pop art, the pioneering use of publicity as erotica by Playboy and other products, and the growing concerns of cultural critics over the emergence of a regime of stimulation.

In one case study, Rutherford pairs James Bond and Madonna in order to examine the link between eroticism and aggression. He further details how television advertising after 1980 constructed a theatre of the libido to entice the buying public, and concludes by situating the Eros project in the wider context of Michel Foucault's account of the administration of life, and specifically sexuality, during the modern era. "A World Made Sexy" is about power and pleasure, emancipation and domination, and the relationship between the personal passions and social controls that have crafted desire.

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