Photo Response Assignment #4, Oct 4

Look at some fashion magazines for the way sexual desirability is portrayed in fashion photography. There is one book of Helmut Newton's fashion photography on physical reserve at the Rock too. I handed out some fashion magazines in class and you should also use your own resources and do some internet searches for fashion photos.
What's going on with the representation of women's bodies (or women... or men... or men's bodies...) as objects of sexual desire? Whose sexual desire? How are some ways that notions of gender and sex get layered into ideas of sexuality? And what do you think of the way images of sexy women are sold to heterosexual women as desirable, but still hetero, not lesbian? Are there different kinds of sexuality or sexiness being portrayed? How do we distinguish?

The assignment is to use a photo that helps to illustrate your thoughts on some aspect of the portrayal (and the obsession with portraying) sexual desire or desirability in these photos or in the clothes the photos depict. Or, the photo might inspired some thoughts about these issues.

Everybody says sex sells, and I've been seeing it sell some weird stuff lately. I saw this tshirt the other day on a girl near campus:



And this one I saw on a guy recently:


What do these causes get out of labeling themselves sexy?