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“Sex is a undeniable part of design in our modern society.” Sex has been used as a tool to sell products and entice customers for years and has never really gone out of style. Sex in design can be easily broken into different parts such as colour, imagery, shapes and psychology. But why is this? Where did the idea of using sex as a way to gain customers and sell products come from and where did it start? Why is the phenomenon of sex so alluring to people and why is it such a prominent aspect of the design industry? How has it truly impacted the way we think of design and the way people see themselves? How has it impacted the media? All this can be answered pretty easily and can be found in its origins and psychology. As early as caveman times we have seen sex in an artistic way, whether that be cave paintings or the famous Venus von Willendorf which is 30,000 years old. We aren’t overly sure what was the first advertisement which used sex or sensuality as a way to advertise but we do know some of the earliest examples come from no other than tobacco!
In 1871 tobacco brand, Pearl Tobacco made a package design which featured a naked women which was almost siren like. This ended up starting a trend in tobacco advertisement, with companies such as W. Duke and Sons which would insert trading cards which would depict sexual scenes or provocative young women. This was also one of the first companies in the tobacco industry to technically sell ‘tasteful pornography’. Due to this new way of packaging, Duke ended up becoming the most successful tobacco brand in America by 1890. Other notable adult products would soon take this way of advertisement, such as saloons, tonics and even gambling after a while.
The interesting thing about this company however was that their advertisement was towards women.
Tobacco may have been noted as one of the first products to use women half adorned and sexualised as part of their packaging but they weren’t the only everyday products to get a little frisky. Believe it or not, the humble soap ended up having a sexual advertising period. The most notable case of this risky hygienic advertisement came from a company known as Woodbury’s Facial Soap.
We can actually explain why advertisement was like this very easily with the movement known as Art Noveu which helped push this sexual type of advertisement and design.
The interesting thing about this company however was that their advertisement was towards women. Instead of half adorned naked women, there was depictions of beautiful women with handsome men, in loving romantic relationships. This advertisement would make women of the time believe using this soap would help them find the romantic partner of their dreams, as the packaging had such a sensual energy between the couples shown.
The First Designers Art Noveu was a French movement which originated in 1890. The themes behind this movement is that of nature which would use insects such as dragonflies, butterflies and birds like sparrows and finches. Though they used animals, they also used the female figure and the movement of foliage and
There is a reason why the women figure was a major part of this movement and it doesn’t just come down to sexual reasons. If we think in a psychological way towards this, we see women as a the beginning of life and the pinacol of mothers and motherhood.
This is why advertisement which would depict women in this style in the 1890’s and forward was so popular as it has a psychological effect on us
The Shapes of Sex
If
we were to break down the shapes of women and men we could actually understand most advertising nowadays even more. Women can be broken down into circles and curves and men into squares and harsh lines. When we design characters we design characters which are evil as harsh lines and sharp shapes and those who are good as soft shapes and soft lines. A well-known critic known as Clive Bell tried to explain what makes good art and this can be interchangeable with advertisement. His argument was depending on the distinct lines and colours, it makes our brains see the piece in a different light. In 2010 a group of scientists created a set of 10 images with 25 different shapes created by Jean Arp which was then hung up in Walters Art Museum.
Those viewing these images were instructed to wear 3d glasses and rank the shapes from most pleasing to least pleasing. The result actually was a little surprising. The results came back that a mix of softer images with slight sharp lines actually drummed up the most reaction.
Our brains ended up seeing this as a living organism instead of something completely smooth or very sharp. Twice as men took place in the study than women did and it is stated that though the shapes with a mix of smooth and sharp lines gave the most reactions, shapes which were almost completely smooth had the best reaction as in a instinctual reaction, women find curves attractive but also comforting. Our natural instincts see curves as someone who is motherly and comforting but also someone who is a good breeding partner.
With shape being an important part of swaying how we think and feel with advertising and how it can connect to the sexual aspects of design, how does colour? Colour being associated with gender is counted as 20th century phenomenon due to WWII and the baby boom. Pink and Blue became the chosen options for what is feminine and what is masculine but a department store in 1918 being a more masculine colour for boys and blue a sweeter calmer colour for girls.
These generations cemented that colour should be assigned to gender and so our culture with colour changed, however there is a psychological reason to this too which can be explained with colour theory. In colour theory we associated warm colours such as reds, pinks, oranges and yellows as colours which are vibrant and excited and bubbly but we can also associate them with being hot headed. Cold colours such as blues, purples, greys and browns are counted as dark, broody, royal and even quietly determined. These can related to the stereotypical aspects of women and men in the media. The ideal women is seen as vibrant, bright and loud such as warm colours portray and the ideal man is portrayed as stoic, calm and reserved such as cold colours portray. This is used heavily when it comes to younger sexual audience advertisement as colours to younger people are some of the first things which will pop out at them.
What does this impact and why do we care?
The impact:
So how does all this sexual advertisement affect our everyday lives in general? In this day and age it’s inventible to not find a successful company which advertises in a sensual manner. Apps such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitch and Twitter are some of the biggest social media platforms that you can easily find sexual advertisement. Sexual advertisement doesn’t just affect women but also men and the group mostly impacted from this type of advertisement is the consumers. Forms of media such as vtubers, models and even game characters are all influenced by this sensual advertisement and themes. Most popular vtubers such as Froot, Silvale, Projekt Melody and more all use sensual aspects in their character designs and approach to their medias which have helped boost their popularity. For instance as of 2020 Projekt Melody became a huge sensation in the adult industry for breaking viewer counts on sites such as Chaturbate, an adult webcam site. This surprised the adult industry due to a virtual anime girl even being able to gain so much
traction. In three days she went from 7,000 followers on Twitter to 20,000! This is just a perfect instance of how quite literally sex sells but it begs the question. How can a character such as an anime character bring so much traction compared to a real person? The answer is simple. In our day and age we look for unnatural body standards such as these characters have. Photoshop is used to enhance many models in magazines, posters and so on. This use of unrealistic proportions or skin or so on, has caused a large influx in none other than the plastic surgery industry. In 2017 an influx of 55% of patients came in to have facial reconstruction surgery so they could look more attractive in their selfies. Due to high amount of cases like this, plastic surgeons have created a new term known as Snapchat Dysmorphia. A study was held by Chen et al which had 252 participants of around 25 years old in age. Out of the 252 participants, those who used social media in larger quantities, were more receptable to wanting plastic surgery. When we take sociocultural theories into this, the more we learn what is attractive beauty standards in our culture, we want to try and replicate those standards which results in the influx of plastic surgery. With this being the case, mental health has been seen to plumet especially when it comes to self-esteem due to these crazy standards.
Though there has been a plumet there has also been an increase in those who have raised their self-esteem and self-evaluation. How should we feel about this influential social norm in the media then? Well that’s up to you. As much as there is a mass amount of negatives there is also a mass amount of positives. This social norm will probably never fade as it’s ingrained in our psychological DNA and unless our culture changes then it won’t change any time soon