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The Aesthetics of Sexual Discontent: Notes from the London ‘Seduction Community’

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Aesthetic Labour

Part of the book series: Dynamics of Virtual Work ((DVW))

Abstract

This chapter explores questions of sexual desire and gendered aesthetics through a discussion of research undertaken with and among men who participate in the London ‘seduction community’. Recognising sexual desire as an affective and embodied dynamic that is nevertheless irrevocably social, I consider how the sexual desires of heterosexual men are shaped in and through normative feminine beauty ideals. I argue that the naturalisation of aesthetic labour as part of the cultural code of femininity has implications for the manner in which heterosexual men relate to women’s bodies, both real and imagined.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    An important exception here is Susan Bordo’s The Male Body, where she describes how images of feminine perfection in the media shape the desires of heterosexual men, such that ‘straight male sexuality is honed on the images, even fixated on them’ (1999, p. 287).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of York, York, UK

    Rachel O’Neill

Authors
  1. Rachel O’Neill
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. King’s College London, London, United Kingdom

    Ana Sofia Elias

  2. King’s College London, London, United Kingdom

    Rosalind Gill

  3. City, University of London, London, United Kingdom

    Christina Scharff

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O’Neill, R. (2017). The Aesthetics of Sexual Discontent: Notes from the London ‘Seduction Community’. In: Elias, A., Gill, R., Scharff, C. (eds) Aesthetic Labour. Dynamics of Virtual Work. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47765-1_19

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