Perspective: Working Assets

Is it wrong to use sexual power for personal gain?

As I stand in front of my mirror, I ask myself, “is this too much?” Is there sort of a blurred boundary in our culture/society that suggest it to be taboo for a woman to “use what she’s got”? I mean, you could argue from both sides, … but after reading this article by Nancy Hass, I feel confident more than ever that as a woman, you should never settle, ”you have to ask yourself how much your sexuality is integral to your very being. And you have to be willing to take the blows if being true to that hold you back in your career.”

This past semester I studied that the male gaze, everything in movies, films, and media, for example, is from the perspective of a male staring at the woman, “males see while females are meant to be seen.” Many theorists and experts, such as Laura Mulvey would argue this point, and say that this notion is also prevalent in all our surrounding advertisements. I sometimes wonder if for some women the idea of women being subjected to a male gaze develops into a sort of an empowerment, an authorization … because “as long as sexuality is an organic by-product of self confidence, not the other way around, it may be a force for good, out lasting youth and its accompanying self-doubt and inexperience.”

“Obviously there remain a few clear boundaries: It’s tacky to flash cleavage at work, and sleeping your way to the top is demeaning and fraught with peril. But, in an era when displaying femininity is no longer automatically dismissed as a sign of weakness, surely that’s not all there is to say.”

“What if your sexiness if without intent, if its simply integral to your personality – are you morally bound to suppress?”

Read the rest here at ELLE, thanks Nancy!