One upcoming book that is intriguing me is British sociologist Catherine Hakim’s “Honey Money: The Power of Erotic Capital.” As the title of the book suggests it posits that there is something called “erotic capital” that exists so that it can be exploited.
"In sexualised, individualised modern societies," she writes, "erotic capital is becoming more important and more valorised, for men and women. However, women have a longer tradition of developing and exploiting it."
She also seems to argue that women have been discouraged from exploiting their erotic capital by the elite that cannot “monopolise” it.
Going by the reviews of the book in Britain and interviews with her, one gets the sense that she is stirring up the pot quite a bit. From full legalization of prostitution to a greater pursuit of surrogate pregnancies for profit, she appears to advocate things that may not make a lot of people happy. She would be happy to know that some women of Anand in Gujarat recognized the profit potential of surrogate pregnancy before Hakim’s advocacy.
Hakim’s views are bound to trouble, if not offend, many simply because she says people, particularly women, should exploit their erotic capital. The book’s US edition is being released next month at a time when America has become both extremely puritanical and wildly licentious at the same time, depending on which societal layer one is looking at—TMZ or the Tea Party.
Speaking of beauty generally, I must end this short post with the ever memorable take on it by the ever captivating Oscar Wilde. “Beauty is a form of genius--is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts in the world like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon.”
Being the Mayor Emeritus of Plainfolksville I can only imagine what it means to have any kind of beauty and then to exploit it.
P.S.: You must have noticed the arresting clipart with a lot of erotic capital which I have used to illustrate the post.
