There’s a woman
she’s every fantasy
and no reality
in one.
Hex Thy Sexy Pics is a video work on manoeuvring sex-positivity, connecting authentically with one’s own desires and encountering Scopic Capitalism, or a general sense of being sexually objectified, and of being pushed to self-objectify.
The term has been introduced by Eva Illouz in her 2019 book ‘The End of Love: A Sociology of Negative Relations’. It describes a form of exploitation of the woman’s body that is based on the male gaze, as a basis of sociological changes due to modern dating apps and other ways by which female bodies and sexualities are being performed, reproduced and circulated online.
She states that they create pressure for a ‘selfhood in which economy, self-value and sex are seamlesly intertwined’. Women feel worthy to the degree that they can sell themselves as sex-object online, a hot commodity in demand. Men evaluate wome by such standards, with a comparison mindset, and create self-value based on their ability to ‘obtain accessibility’ to what is perceived as being in high demand, with a sense of navigating male competition. Most users are unaware that dating app algorithms are developed on exacerbated principles of slotmachines, thus transforming ‘dating’ into a highly addictive gamble.
‘Scopic Capitalism has had a deep impact on self-worth, ...generating new sources of uncertainty and creating new forms of social hierarchy, disturbing ...how people feel worthwhile in the eyes of others. Especially how women feel worthwhile in the eyes of the men, who continue to control and organise their social lives. ...
For it is mainly ‘women who groom their bodies to produce value, while men consume women’s production of their sexual value... .’