She sells…

“And now for something completely different”.

Sex.

Well sexual imagery at least, we were sitting chatting a few weekends ago, and ended up putting on some music channel for some background noise as we chatted – younger generation today, must have noise!! – a plug for the channel came on screen and each snippet was of a young scantily clad lady, writhing and generally shaking her booty. Hormones rushed off to parts of my body and attention was diverted. Think Britney, Christina and that lot, all marketed, packaged and waiting for drooling blokes to ogle. Then Big Brother hits our screens and we are “treated” to acres of cleavage (both ends) and once again sex is the focus.

Sex most definitely DOES sell.

Underlying all of this, of course, is a certain seediness and the fact that it’s always the women who are portrayed in a very male orientated way. Sexism it seems is alive and well, even if it’s somewhat refined, honed and cleverly packaged these days. It’s now acceptable to use sex to sell anything and it’s starting to spread over into male products as well. What better way to get you to buy the new Nivea shower gel than have an advert featuring a buffed, tanned hunk to capture the attention of your lady and suggest that you too can be like him if she gets you to buy that shower gel or moisturiser.

So sex sells. Universal constant.

Now, getting away from the fact that my wife will pause mid-sentence for a quick drool when that Nivea advert comes on, and putting aside the notion that at a base level we are all sexual animals and one of the few (only?) species who take pleasure from sex, is this a good thing? It’s been going on for years of course, but it’s becoming more and more acceptable in general society and I wonder if it’s lowering our sensitivity and introducing more problems to our society?

I wonder if you can match the decline of the influence of the church against the increased use of sexual imagery and general acceptance that, actually, sex isn’t “evil” but can be quite fun!

So here’s a thought, if our society wasn’t so dominated by sexual imagery, would the levels of violence and educational standards be the same? It’s more acceptable to be a Page 3 model, so why bother working hard in school if you’re a pretty girl and have big boobs? And what of the sexual imagery of men? Is that leading to an increased inferiority complex and a resulting increase in the levels of violence (I’m guessing that some women feel “lesser” than the skinny models but don’t turn to violence when they are frustrated??). Am I generalising too much and missing the point completely???

Sex sells, but what is the price?