Sexing the Look

University of Missouri-St. Louis
J.C. Penney Conference Center

Sponsored by the Institute for Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis

How do the Internet, film, television, music videos, and popular magazines construct sexual imagery? And how does this imagery construct its viewers? This two-day multidisciplinary conference brings together researchers from across the region to explore the impact of sexualized imagery in popular visual culture within a global context.

Panel topics will include:

• Sexing the Image in Advertising
• Nudism, Pornography, and Feminism
• Film Gazes at Bodies
• Sexing the Look Online

Paper presentations will include:               

• Sexing the Truck
• From "Babushki" to "Sexy Babes": The Sexing Up of Bulgarian Women in Advertising
• Adaptation and the Female Grotesque: The Reception of Bridget Jones
• The Predator and the Poptart
• Not Your Babushka's Matchmaking: Constructing Erotic Selves in Online Kazakhstan
• "I Ran Across It in the Barracks Here": Obscenity, Nudist Representations, and WWII
• Arousing Suspicions: Contemporary Anti-Pornography Feminism and the Politics of Style
• The Female Robot: Misogyny and Subversion
• Senegalese Ethnic Erotica and the Golden Age of Postcards

Both days will feature screenings of a number of short films including War Zone, Interviews with My Next Girlfriend, and Veronica's Story, as well as two by Sut Jhally, Dreamworlds III and Killing Us Softly 3 (with Jean Kilbourne).

A buffet dinner on Thursday evening will precede Michael Kimmel's keynote address, "Babes in Boyland: Young Men and Pornography." Dr. Kimmel is professor of Sociology at State University of New York, Stony Brook, and author of The Gendered Society; The Gender of Desire; Men Confront Pornography; and The Sexual Self.

EXPLICIT MATERIALS NOTICE: What is presented and discussed at this conference may be explicitly sexual in nature and may be offensive to some. We assume that the registrant is of legal age and accepts responsibility to leave any session that is found offensive. We also assume that no registrant will bring minors to sessions. We do not assume any responsibility for what is presented or discussed.