Its OK for sex to sell

German publisher Benedikt Taschen has taught me two things — I do blush and sex sells, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Taschen was a latecomer to the avante-garde movement in fashion that fostered growing openness about sexuality in the 1960s, and he has continued the movement as a modernist and entrepreneur.

This movement grew with the support of female leaders such as Helen Gurley Brown, Cosmopolitan’s editor, who was highly controversial for her feminist stance on sex and the right to pleasure.

Though not a producer herself, Brown has supported many columnists and views that might have otherwise remained underground.

Her famous quote, “Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere,” is an example of her support of promiscuity — something society once explicitly labeled as bad.

Though many artists have been motivated by the strong words of pioneer feminists like Brown, we’re still working to get rid of the good and bad’ labels associated with sexual expression.

Sex is branded in adverse ways. It’s a filthy taboo. It’s troublesome to body image when it comes to photo editing, like Target’s bikini model Photoshop hack job.  

It can be demeaning, like Aston Martin’s used car ad showing a partially nude woman reading, “You know you’re not the first, but do you really care?”

It’s a shock factor in the vein of American Apparel ads, which are banned from print in many countries.

And it’s also present in entertainment.

Like Kevin Spacey in House of Cards, who goes as far to say in that fine southern swagger, “Everything is about sex. Except sex. Sex is about power.”

Reality isn’t a TV show. But sex does have the power to sell.

This can be detrimental when media gurus, screenwriters and everyday people manipulate the reality of sex. It alters our expectations, effectively using stereotypes to exploit and demean us.

However, it isn’t right to label everything sexual as negative.

Society’s automatic associations with sex are judgmental, close minded and outdated.

The idea that women are victimized or lewd every time they are portrayed sensually is wrong.

Ideas about sex are driven by classic feminist views and traditional standards of pious women.

I can’t help but think they slightly contradict one another. And this is not a new thought.

Taschen is one of the publishers to have blurred these lines of good and bad sexual expression with his recognition of aesthetics and the pure sensual presence that comes with sex.

Although his work has been controversial, Taschen has been recognized for his courage and tagged as a man who simply does whatever he wants.

However, as an artist and businessman who has had unwavering loyalty to the art world, his selections are not provocatively obscure just for the sake of shock value.

He’s worked with Dian Hanson, who is the author behind The Little Book series of nude photographs from the 1940s to the 1990s.

He’s also responsible for publishing more refined artists like Ralph Gibson and his titled work Nude.

With each publication, there’s an underlying theme of expression Taschen allows the world to come to terms with.

And while Gibson aims for perfection, the conversation has started to lead us to accept imperfections, rather unique attributes, as beautiful, too.

We see this in fashion ads from American Apparel’s recent “Sexy has no expiration date” campaign, where they hired 62-year-old actress Jacky O’Shaughnessy for a lingerie shoot.

We also see designer Donna Karan employ unconventional models for her runway shows, again breaking this mold.

With the launch of Cosmo Careers, we see more people recognizing the difference between sexual presentations that are unhealthy and those that confront the issues, but still embrace sexuality.

Sex can be powerful. It can be used negatively, but it can also be beautiful and empowering — and that’s the sort of sex to buy.

kelcollisi@indiana.edu