This essay will address the manipulation of sexuality within the media and creative industries. It will look at both negative and positive consequences and effects this has on society in western culture. The sexual revolution is historically classified as a time between the 1960’s to the 1980’s as the aftereffect of investigation and scientific research into sexual reaction by Masters and Johnson. It lead to the embrace of female sexual pleasure and the acceptance of promiscuity. This essay will look at sexual revolution as a more broad term; exploring both historical and contemporary effects seen in recent changes to society's attitude to things such as fetish, female sexuality, gender fluidity, homosexuality etc. Yet in contrast it will also analyse the possible negative effects it caused such as the objectification of the female body and even the appearance of the campaign group PIE (the paedophile information exchange).
The sexual revolution opened up the world to many movements of strong, sexually empowered women wanting to share their opinions with the world. These liberated movements are now commonly known as the first wave feminists; the goals of which being access to better jobs with equal pay and the eradication of discriminatory laws. The Guerilla girls are a brilliant example of a feminist activist group fighting for gender and race equality as a result of the revolution particularly within the creative industries.
This image is an example of one of the Guerrilla Girls campaigns in an attempt for the Met. Museum to hold more exhibitions by women artists. The posters were plastered onto the building and surrounding areas, as a result the figures actually increased and more women artists were accepted but the figures are still far from balanced equal (as they are in the majority of art galleries). These statistics are proof of some of the inequalities women still face within the creative industries.
Another issue women now face post-revolution is the sexual objectification and negative oppression seen within the creative advertising industry. This new found idea that sex sells has transformed the advertising industry using submissive figures and examples of women to entice men and encourage women to change their attitudes to themselves - in turn creating sales. Women are now recognised equally as sexual beings but instead this has culturally been flipped into a negative “She is not an autonomous being but an object for a man’s erotic needs, his comforts and for procreation” (Frankl.G, pg.140) This repression of women is overt within the advertising industry therefore reinforcing the idea men are the dominants.
This advertisement for Burger King shows an example of the oppression and over-sexualisation used to objectify women. The woman in this image has been posed and modeled to look similar to that of a blow up sex doll along with the sexually suggestive tagline of ‘it’ll blow your mind away’. The advert has been created as a shock tactic, irrespective of gender it's likely to make you look twice in passing and successfully draw attention to the product. The negative connotations of this advert are the conscious societal opinion of women this creates, women become an object of advertising and an object of pleasure rather than an equal to men. A less conscious negativity of this is that passing women see the objectification and perception of femininity in advertising sexualised in this way and the bombardment of it all creates an ideology to conform to this nature. In simple terms men feel its socially and morally acceptable to think of women as submissive and women feel abnormal if they don't carry themselves as belongings and lesser figures to men: history repeating itself using physiognomy to create social order.
The backlash against sexual inequality within art and literature is extremely prominent. Within contemporary art as manipulation of sexuality using creative media can be both positive and negative dependant on the maker. Particularly among feminist artists who are accepted and embraced within the public eye who turn this into something liberating; examples such as Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin, Maud Fernhout etc. Of course this emergence of activists and artists expressing their thirst for equality and change creates opposition.
“Hello Guerrilla Girls or Guerrilla cunts. I have read your anti-white chauvinistic,
sexist statements concerning men who far exceed your talents in painting.
Why should we purchase your pms paintings? From what i’ve seen in some
photos, your talents are truly lacking. Women love to downgrade men to compensate
for their insecurities and weakness…” (Girls.G, pg.92)
The misunderstanding of feminism is that the movement hates men and aims to achieve a society ran by women. This is an mis-informed opinion, the feminist movement strives for equality in important issues such as equal pay, maternity leave, sexual harassment etc. Just because the name is derived from the female pronoun it doesn't mean female dominance. Once again opinions like this one make it apparent the sexual revolution is not over as recognising that women have sexual needs and pleasure was the tip of the iceberg and has opened up many new issues in contemporary culture. But historically mass media feeds one opinion of sexual revolution in the aim of repressing uprising, change and ultimate freedom of sexual being, so the journey may be long yet.
The honest approach to female sexuality and the eradication of objectification is something literature, creative direction and social media (blogs) are more recently distributing to the world. “I became keenly aware that I was wearing a shirt and he was not. That didn’t seem fair.” (Dunham.L, pg.72); young writers like Lena Dunham are using their honest personal experiences of being persecuted and treated differently just because of gender and how nowadays although less laws bind women to a submissive position, society still often shuns those who fight it. An issue however with new wave feminism and the structure its began to take is the misconception that for a woman to be successful she must be aggressive, strong and typically ‘male’ in their personality; “That attitude towards gender works to diminish and narrow what women are and can become” (Levrant.S, pg.238) It’s possible that the label of feminist itself is off putting for many and could in turn have a negative effect in terms of false judgement.
Although many of Freud's theories of sexual deviancy and the physocological routes of our seuxal aims are now considered wrong they can still be used to explain why many people are closed minded when it comes to equality. “The man is convinced that the woman needs him, that without him she will lose all moral control and rapidly descend to a deplorable level” (Freud.S, pg.5) His theories are subjective to social construct, upbringing and educational systems both dependant on decade and location but they can be applied throughout. Freud's theories explain how a man's attachment to his mother (the oedipus complex) leads to his relationship to women as he develops. His core physiology is one reason he feels superior to the woman but it's the manipulation of this by the advertising, film industries and general society that evolves these basic feelings into the dominance of the male figure. Contemporary education systems are also created to prevent revolution, change and uprising to ‘the norms’. The hierarchy of ‘genius’ and ‘people learning’ restricts future generations from expressing their own thoughts and the change in social construct from being easy. Theory by Jaques Rancier on the idea of ‘the flipped classroom’ pose possibilities of educational constructs that could benefit the general hierarchy and positively affect the gender equality issues posed in society. A large issue with current education regarding sexuality is the taboo area around homosexuality, gender roles, gender fluidity, transgender etc. But in a flipped classroom situation learning is fluid, the teacher is no longer considered more intelligent and enlightened, instead they pose as a route of discovery allowing the pupils to question things and the teacher helping to create a range of possible and questionable answers to be interpreted. In a flipped classroom environment instead of impressionable youth being told a defining opinion that should be followed the curiosities of sexual construct could be discussed openly in theory creating a more equal and well considered opinion of gender and sexuality equality in the future. An example of the flipped classroom in contemporary creative practice is The School of the Damned, by throwing out tuition fees and framework construction by authority figures this art school successfully follows the flipped classrooms theory. As a result of this ‘lack of direction’ many describe its unorthodox outcomes as radical. The fluid nature allows for freedom of speech, enlightenment of individual and personal thoughts and an equality of being un-reliant on race, age, gender, sexuality.
In contrast another development in sexual revolution that affects the creative industry is the acceptance and increase consciousness of fetish, non-monogamous relationships and ‘deviant behaviour’. A possible explanation for say interpersonal relationships can be explained briefly by Jaques Lacan’s mirror theory. A significant part of his theory discusses the difference between needs and desires. Needs are physical things like hunger that can ultimately be sustainably satisfied, desires such as love are unsatible. Insatiable desire leads to experimentation that strays from the social constructs that depict ‘vanilla’ sex. Freud's defines fetishism as the ‘replacement of the sexual object’ this is subjective to both the upbringing and early life experiences of the individual and current circumstance. For example a common occurrence of sadism in men “Most men’s sexuality reveals a certain quantity of aggression, of the inclination to overpower” (Freud. S, pg.38). In contrast men who work in positions of power (managers etc.) experience masochism as a relief and way to feel free of all responsibility. The facts of reasons these sexual ‘deviances’ occur are debatable but the real importance is the free place they're taking within contemporary society in the form of art, film, documentary; it's certainly a huge change from the pre revolutionised society that will continue to impact people. The continuous exposure to which will impact the acceptance of such things therefore impacting our own relationships and sexual desires.
The commonplace of fetish (example 50 shades of grey) within society is a questionable development but is key to fully understanding sexuality. These images ('Leather Top' Noemie Lenoir & Dylan Garner by Xevi Muntane for Ponystep FW 11.12) are among the increasing advertising campaigns adapting the recent acceptance of fetishism into a shock advertising tactic: in this case female domination/male masochism. This appearance of fetishism in advertising is a clear example of how far the boundaries of sexualisation within the media is being pushed in contemporary advertising. The normalisation of this arguably could be positive in revolutionising the way we think about sexual freedom and fetish. On the other hand arguments against fetishism discussing it as being a ‘perversion’ should also be considered; Freud states “a fetishistic condition is required of the sexual object if the sexual goal is to be accomplished”, this is a possible negative of the introduction of fetish to people's lives, in cases it makes people's sex drives reliant on their fetish; something many psychologists believe is unhealthy.
Yet another element of sexuality impacted upon by the creative industries is gender fluidity and same sex attraction. For instance being gay was frowned upon and even illegal in England until 1967 but the protest (much of it visual through gay awareness and pride posters) for rights and exposure of homosexualites normality has lead to more freedom. The increase representation of non cis & heterosexual characters within fictional media is also step in the right direction in terms of equality; although it is nowhere near hitting figures realistic of statistics. 
The appearance of homosexuality equality within the contemporary creative industries has become more prominent post sexual revolution, “Same sex eroticism became a particular issue in art between the Stonewall rebellion in New York in 1969 and the first gay rights march in Washington in 1979” (Mahon.A pg.215) The ethical battle to change opinions and laws surrounding homosexuality since then has manifested itself creatively in a huge way, particularly with the visual campaigns by The Stonewall charity. The bold iconic posters are distributed throughout the world, specifically in public places and educational buildings. The impact of this being that the phrase “some people are gay get over it” is now commonplace within people's knowledge, thought provoking campaign material such a this increases the equality of homosexuality within society. This campaign has more recently emerged new material with the slogan “Some people are trans. get over it!”. The ever growing acceptance of gay and transgender people has created some negative backlash from certain people, particularly within christian groups. For example the group ‘Christian Doctrine’ discusses their opposition against the campaign; replacing the slogan with “Most people are not gay. Get over it!”. “Over It’!! Sadly, they take the godless view that people should be able to do whatever they want.” (Doctrine.C, 2010), through statements like this they clearly express that not everyone is open-minded about the topics raised which makes the campaign all the more relevant. The distribution of gay and transgender equality material will undoubtedly always turn heads and spark debate in certain social circles, but the appearance of it within the creative industries continues to influence acceptance and understanding.
Until recently most representation of transgender people within creative industries and public domain was satirical; for example the traditional pantomime dame considered a figure of hilarity. Gender roles are something integrated within our society and adhered to throughout advertising and film continuously. From the moment we're told the sex of our unborn babies the gender conformity begins; “You try to buy a gender-neutral gift only to find that almost everything manufactured is gender coded” (Girls.G, pg 11). Ever since the early 20th century children have been branded either one gender or another; leaving no room for fluidity or transition; the publicity of such followed through advertising creates a general conformity and further pressure to act and dress within the social limitations of your birth sex. 
A highly debated recent example of the gender bias’ is within the recent limited edition re-branding of Kinder Surprise. The contents of the blue egg was toy cars, the pink was dolls. The divide between the companies appropriation of what our children should be playing with sparked debate on sexism within children's product; but the product also leaves no room or consideration for children who don't bind themselves by standard gender pro-nouns/colour roles.The exploration of gender further than male and female is something lesser explored within popular culture and the creative industries until recently. Recognition and acceptance through the coming out of celebrity figures such as Caitlin Jenner and the use of transgender characters & actors such as Jamie Clayton are beginning to bring further discussion into public domain. The creative industries attempts at broadening the minds and knowledge of the public include recent documentaries on topics such as transgender children (Transgender children - Louis Theroux) the appearance of such possibilities causes further concern towards the gender roles integrated into the design of products such as Kinder. Its steps forward like these creative outlets and media representations of gender struggles that are a brilliant example of good avenues that arguably resulted from the sexual revolution and its provocative campaigns to express all inner personal feelings no-matter how taboo they were considered at the time.
“Everything I saw as a child, from 90210 to The Bridges of Madison County, had led me to
believe that sex was a cringey, warmly lit event where two smooth-skinned, gooey-eyed
losers achieved mutual orgasm by breathing on each other’s faces” (Dunham.L pg.73)
The mis-representation of sexuality in the media from pornography to the soap operas we are exposed to as children hugely impacts the ‘norms’ of general culture in adult life. Even to soften the blow of the not so romanticised reality of sex for young people experiencing it for the first time, society could benefit from more realistic portrayals of sex. The introduction whether it be via popular culture or standard education of non-binary & homosexual role models, the idea of feminism and the concept of sexual freedom and further revolution; rather than the scientific, non inclusive lessons past generations have been taught. 84% of homosexual characters within TV secum to a deadly end; this negative throw away attitude to these characters directly shows how although the general acceptance and changes in equality laws have improved there's still a long way to come before things become accurately and appropriately portrayed. The bodies of women being yet another unfortunate element that appears glamorized; hairless, toned and usually Photoshopped the negative connotations this has for young women's mental health is undeniable.
There's no hesitation regarding the fact the sexual revolution had many positive effects in liberating society and allowing women to embrace their sexual needs. Despite these changes issues created due to the changes are still negatively affecting modern day society. Arguments as to whether the sexual revolution was a success still arise but the real question should be; Is the sexual revolution over? The possibility of third wave feminism, movements forward regarding the acceptance of alternate genders, same sex marriage being legalised and the cultural appropriation of fetish are all examples of sexually revolutionary factors within contemporary culture. These attitudes are being translated poorly through the creative advertising industry and these avenues of popular media need adjust to enable mass social change, acceptance and an successfull sexual revolution to be ultimately complete. For example equal representation in film and TV could change the negative viewpoint often surrounding genderfluid and homosexual individuals; even just the representation of more honest sex rather than the clean cut romantic scenes were usually exposed to. Also a stop to the un-equal oversexualisation of women used to sell, objectify and place submissive guidelines. Possibly the key to a complete revolutionary society could lay in a new educational approach to us as sexual beings and the connotations of recognising this; possibly a flipped classroom or less drastic changes to the range of views and extent children are taught on the subject.
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