Reaping the rewards of your erotic capital
Feminists started jumping up and down when Hooters and Double D hamburger restaurants announced plans to open in Hong Kong, while the guys were salivating over the prospect of encouraged flirtation and borderline harassment. Both chain
Feminists started jumping up and down when Hooters and Double D hamburger restaurants announced plans to open in Hong Kong, while the guys were salivating over the prospect of encouraged flirtation and borderline harassment. Both chains sell food and booze served by scantily clad buxom waitresses.
Meanwhile, those topless male models with ridiculously ripped abs are gone from the Abercrombie & Fitch flagship store in Central. The American apparels company has, of late, opted for a more conventional approach to selling clothes. Funny how that attracts far less media attention in Hong Kong. If Hooters and Double D decided to cover up their ladies, I am sure it would be front-page news. It's an example of what British sociologist Catherine Hakim called "the male sex-deficit". How does this work?
I bet with some confidence that those beefcakes who used to pose at the front of Abercrombie & Fitch shops earned a lot less than the buxom ladies at places like Hooters and Double D. Likewise, the porn and fashion industries are the few private sectors where women earn a lot more than their male counterparts. The deficit that Hakim refers to is a lack of erotic capital of men relative to women.
Quite simply, as economist Daniel Hamermesh has argued, being attractive and better-looking pays. This is the erotic capital that also includes personal charm, sociability and actual sexual expertise. It should be considered a form of capital as real as monetary capital, social capital and human capital, like your PhD and BSc degrees. Different jobs value different capital(s) more, but all forms of capital count. I agree with Hakim that radical feminists do women a disservice by completely discounting erotic capital.
Both men and women can be "objectified", but women in fashion and porn yield higher economic returns by commoditising their greater erotic capital. While in most other economic sectors, other forms of capital count for more, say your PhD if you are an academic, looks still matter. Citing two decades of research, Hamermesh shows how better-looking people marry better and get higher wages, even in jobs that don't seem to require good looks.
There is simply no reason not to capitalise on all your assets (no pun intended).
