Sex Sells. But What’s The Point?

“When you talk to people about raunch culture in terms of a specific company or corporation they just say: ‘Oh, well, sex sells.’ That’s our justification for everything. And Barbie-doll images of women – long legs, fake breasts, blonde hair – are a glossy advertising shorthand that simultaneously appeals to everyone and no one, shifting units in a way that more complex, varied and substantive sexual images never could. ‘My book is not an attack on the sex industry,’ says Ariel Levy. ‘It’s about how the sex industry has become every industry.”