The term “sexy” seems to originate from the early 1900s but has since changed meanings multiple times so that it now encompasses many connotations. In 1905, “sexy” meant to be “engrossed in sex,” indicating that “sexy” was still inherently linked to the physical act of having sex. It wasn’t until 1912 that “sexy” began to shift to mean “sexually attractive.” In the modern day, it is common to use “sexy” for a myriad of things both not necessarily related to the physical act of sex or attraction only in a sexual nature. After 1987, the Merriam-Webster dictionary started defining “sexy” as “generally attractive or interesting.” This simple change allows for anything to be sexy, theoretically, depending on the obvious subjective nature of individual opinion and context. If this seems overly vague, that’s because it is. In fact, a popular Urban Dictionary post defines “sexy” as “people can be described as sexy due to their physical appearance, behaviour, personality and other stuff.” The post continues with examples including “man, Jess has such a sexy body, look at the way Liv and Kim are dancing. That's sexy. Abbey's got a sexy walk. And the way she talks really revs my engine,” and “Jules is so confident in herself, it's sexy.” If all these things are considered “sexy,” what really is sexy? One of the paradoxes of language is the more a term is used, the less it means.
When considering the realities of modern-day advertising, media, and social content websites, it’s no surprise that the word has been further stretched for the benefit of corporations and political institutions. This is because, oftentimes, a corporation’s or political institution’s internal goal is boring to the general public. For this reason, these sectors must get creative to catch people’s attention for as long as possible. It has been proven that using sexual images and phrases in advertisements does exactly this, though often without wide brand recognition. Thus, any wise corporation will use this tactic to drive up their engagement. Further, in the world of social media content creation, body exposure is associated with more success on the app. However, creators must use caution here for fear of being “shadow banned” by the site. As marketing shifts forms to accommodate for a more de-privatized form of creation, each individual user must become accustomed to the typical types of advertisement techniques that have been used for years.
Sexy Turning into Clickbait
Moreover, because of dwindling attention spans, in order to increase engagement, media platforms will often make “clickbait.” This includes exaggerating certain aspects of the news to entice users into reading further. By doing this, the media chooses falsehoods in favor of sex appeal. For example, when reading about politics, any type of conflict is more interesting than types of peace. It’s likely this contributes to the more extremist opinions we now see in political partisanship, as well as certain politicians curating their social media content to seem controversial. Thus, in order to encourage the general public to engage in political functionalities that affect their every day, it is still necessary to trick them into caring using “sexy” tactics.
Bodies in Advertising
There are other concerns to consider when evaluating the ethical use of selling sex. Specifically, gendered differences are highlighted and exacerbated in the quest for public interest. Traditionally, women have been more often used as sexual objects in advertising. This, again, doesn’t seem to come as a surprise considering the general societal patterns of Westernized beauty ideals. While this is still the case, men are now being used to represent “sexy” more often than they used to be. Whether this illustrates progress or just another change under the same oppressive regime, I’ll leave up to you to decide for yourself. On Instagram, female content creators are more likely to include photos with their bodies exposed on their pages than men. This type of body exposure is associated with a positive effect on advertising revenue, which complicates the relationship between freedom to post and livelihood realities. It is also likely these images and innuendos affect the real-life treatment of femme-presenting people by society.
It seems that the co-evolution of the term “sexy” and industrial production under capitalism has effectively turned the phrase into a ploy for attention-grabbing, engagement-creating, money making at the hands of the most powerful in our society. In a world where attention and engagement are profitable, this distinction becomes even less thinly veiled. But, as shown in differing Urban Dictionary definitions, the real definition of “sexy” is individualized and made whole through conversational use. Therefore, in a radical disruption of traditional power dynamics, exploring your own definition of “sexy” allows for your reclamation of the co-opted term in order for your own (very “sexy”) liberation. To practice this, try taking a moment to examine your relationship to the term and any images or thoughts you associate with it in questioning whether these are your own or the byproduct of some seller out there. In this way, breaking down these barriers to language can help you break down barriers to your own version of “sexy.”
By Emily Carriere