A world made sexy : Freud to Madonna / Paul Rutherford.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 321-348) and index.

"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."--Jacket

The Sex Museum -- History as Past Pornography -- The voyeur's gaze -- Liberation Theory -- The Radical Freud -- Reich's Sexual Revolution -- Marcuse's Utopia of Eros --The wisdom of Ernest Dichter -- The Erotic Sell -- The Secret Life of Salvidor Dali (1942) -- The Maidenform Woman -- The Early Playboy -- Fetish Barbie -- The Imagery of Pop Art -- Signs of Angst -- The Mechanical Bride (1951) -- The System of Objects (1968) -- Subliminal seduction (1973) -- Killing us softly (1979) -- The Erotics of Power -- The Bond Saga -- Madonna's Rise -- A Theatre of the Libido -- Erotic Trajectories -- Displays of Sin -- Fables of Lust -- Audiences and Impacts -- Sexy Posters.

Print version record.

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