Provocations of the Hypersexualized City

ABSTRACT

An excess of sexualized images increasingly pervades public spaces in the United States, Europe and Australia. The article will discuss how the sexualized events of urban life have not only moved from the interior spaces of private consumption into public space but that the multi-modal proliferation of “hypersexualization” normalizes sexual transgression. A series of case studies will be analyzed through a feminist rubric to foreground emergent sociocultural sexualized systems “at play” in the city and will argue that sexualized urbanism legitimizes gender stereotypes and contributes to violence toward women.

Keywords:

• city
• sexualization
• advertising
• gender
• media
• postfeminist
• feminism

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nicole Kalms

Nicole Kalms is a lecturer in the Department of Architecture at Monash University, Australia. She writes regularly for local and international design media and has extensive experience in architectural research and publications. Nicole is undertaking a Ph.D. in Architecture at Monash University, where her research interests include feminism, contemporary urbanism and media. Nicole has helped to establish the design-based initiatives in the Department of Architecture with a focus on crossdisciplinary design studios and architectural theory.