Tag Archives: sexualization

Would You Buy a Used Skull from this Woman?

Laurie and Debbie say:

What do Hollywood prop shops that use sex to sell skeletons:

Woman posed provocatively on prehistoric skull

sexualized anatomical illustrations from the 15th century and after

Flirty anatomical illustrations of people stripping their skin

and pin-up x-rays from a promotional medical supplies calendar

x-ray of prone woman on her elbows, with her tush and legs in the air

have in common?

Obviously, they are all using sexualized archetypes to draw our attention to something, some very different things.

We’re more interested in how they are different than in how they are the same.

The top one is apparently representative of a trend in selling Pleistocene-era bones (some more information at the link at the top of the article). It would seem to be the super-simple equation of “men, not women, buy ancient bones, therefore, having sexy women in the pictures of ancient bones for sale is a good thing.” By using women in these poses, they draw upon decades (if not centuries) of “buy this” imagery in the minds of their customers. Unimaginative, and definitely weird, but probably at least somewhat lucrative.

The second one looks like it was drawn for serious medical students 600 years ago. It’s easy to imagine the artist, or the person commissioning the artist, saying “We don’t want students to just flip past this; we want them to really look at it. What will make them really look at it?” More than half a millennium ago, the answer was “make it sexy.”

The third, which Debbie blogged about in 2010, is also using sexual poses to draw commercial attention; however, unlike the animal skulls, the x-ray company pictures do in fact demonstrate something about what they are selling, even if the sexualization is not at all related to the machine function.

Sex is essentially an attention-grabber; it’s best done with your full attention, and it can easily draw your attention. The way everything else–relevant, semi-relevant, and irrelevant–has been sexualized is about masculine attention and commodification, about sexism and the objectification of women, about how hidden persuaders work. And it’s also about the ways we are wired to pay attention to sex.

Sex Sells … Medical Imaging?

Debbie says:

Eizo, a Japanese company also doing business in Europe and around the world, has a new way to sell its medical monitors and imaging devices, with a “pin-up” calendar of skeletal images.

I’m no stranger to sex, or conventionally beautiful women, as sales devices, but I have to say that I don’t think of skeletons as sexy, and I imagine that I’m not alone in this. (I also imagine that some people will find these images very sexy indeed.)

Two things make this interesting to me:

First of all, the viewers (except anyone who is actually attracted to skeletal images) have to be so familiar with conventionally sexy poses that they can automatically “dress” the images with skin and hair and smiles. Of course, this is a lot easier because we have such predetermined senses of what color that skin should be, how smooth it is, what the hair should look like, what an advertising version of an inviting smile is.

Second, even in the realm of medical imaging, satisfying the stereotypical male gaze is more important than demonstrating the product. For medical purposes, these images would be just as useful (and perhaps more useful) if they represented a variety of sizes, shapes, ages, and sexes. (Since the way they’re done allows us to see the skin lines, it seems pretty clear that this is either one model, or several similar-looking tall, thin women. Assuming the model or models are young, they’re also in a demographic statistically less likely to need the kind of imaging work being sold here.) But the calendar isn’t a medical tool, it’s a sales tool; they want their customers to remember Eizo’s name and, in time-honored fashion, they’ve done that by associating their name with sex.

I wonder if it’s working for them.

(Thanks to Sociological Images for finding this one.)