We share the publication "Women's sexuality and scopic capitalism" by Professor Eva Illouz (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem). The publication has been co-organized by the UNESCO Chair for Gender Equality in Higher Education Institutions and the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences, Philosophy Sectionof the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. This publication is the result of the transcription of the UNESCO-PUCP International Conference on Gender held on October 18, 20221. We thank Professor Eva Illouz for giving us the opportunity to publish her lecture and for her kindness in sharing these reflections with us.

Abstract

In this lecture, Professor Illouz wonders about the mechanisms that explain why, while women have acquired more status in the economic, legal and political spheres, they have also undergone a devaluation in the sexual-romantic sphere. To this end, the author raises the paradoxical issue of the processes of evaluation, valorization and devaluation of women in the development of scopic capitalism. In a fluid and orderly theoretical argumentation, Dr. Illouz develops the importance of the consumer market based on the image of women's bodies and the way in which this contributes to their devaluation.

About the author

Eva Illouz is a renowned sociologist. Her research focuses on the sociology of capitalism, the sociology of emotions, the sociology of gender and the sociology of culture. Her work explores several significant and thought-provoking themes, such as the influence of capitalism on emotions, the commodification of romance, and the meaning of freedom, choice and individualism in the modern world. Some of his most important works are: Consuming the Romantic Utopia: Love and the Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism (University of California press, 1997); Cold Intimacies: The Making of Emotional Capitalism (Polity Press, 2007); Why Love Hurts: A Sociological Explanation (Polity Press, 2012); Unloving: A Sociology of Negative Relations (Oxford University Press, 2018).

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Women's sexuality and scopic capitalism (2023), Eva Illouz

Reference

Women's sexuality and scopic capitalism. Peru: UNESCO Chair of Gender Equality in Higher Education Institutions. Recovered from: https://catedra.pucp.edu.pe/unesco/publicaciones/la-sexualidad-de-las-mujeres-y-el-capitalismo-escopico/