Mode und Leidenschaft
Abstract
With the increasing sexualization of public space in Western societies, women are increasingly being addressed explicitly as sex consumers. Using websites that market lingerie, sexual accessories, and sex toys for women as examples, the author examines the images of female sexuality that are intended to attract women as buyers. Despite the diversity of providers in terms of target groups and marketing, these images follow the discourses of female sexuality that are also produced by other agents of pop culture – television series, fashion, women's magazines. These discourses present women's desire as fashionable, safe, aesthetic, pleasurable, autonomous, autoerotic, and feminine. The author explores whether these postfeminist and postmodern concepts of female sexuality follow androcentric models in a new way or whether they signal women's sexual empowerment. She finds arguments and evidence for both perspectives and warns against ignoring the progressive potential of these developments, even if they reveal male perspectives on female bodies and desires.