Feeling sexy? The lingerie effect.
Lingerie: a wide range from matching M&S knickers and bra to raunchy dominatrix outfit. Rachel Wood, published in Journal of Gender Studies examines the complex woman/lingerie relationship and how it affects, identity, class, relationships, confidence, desire, intimacy and pleasure.
Lingerie constructs many aspects of a woman’s identity; Mother, sportswoman, sexual partner, worker. Wood interviewed 16 professional women, aged between 20 and 30 and heard their interpretations of lingerie in the postfeminist age. How did it affect them and what purpose did it fulfil?
Most of the women interviewed associated with the advertised lingerie clad model as “a perfect desirable visual spectacle” and aspired to use lingerie to personally embody this. Many spoke of using lingerie to make them feel great, improve confidence, particularly in respect to men or intimate relationships. This reflects the postfeminist idea that women are empowered to portray a feminine sexy body and become “active sexual agents”.
Women also used lingerie to define themselves socially, generally preferring more classic tasteful lingerie over trashy, porn inferred, cheap goods. Lingerie choices reflect the substance of the woman wearing it and helped women aspire to higher class.
However, whilst lingerie helped some women with sexual validation, others felt inadequate when comparing themselves to “buxom, size 6” perfect models in the media. Many felt “too fat”, pressurised to perform, awkward and uncomfortable.
Many felt they had to “make the effort” for their partner’s enjoyment, craving their “desiring gaze”. So is lingerie really empowering? Is it some kind of female body armour necessary to become an object of desire and remove hang ups? Or does it highlight anxieties over body image and vulnerability?
Wood concludes that buying and wearing lingerie is a contradiction and that “postfeminist sexual consumer culture will never be an easy fit”.
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