Forgetting for a moment that Kate Upton isn’t old enough to know who Color Me Badd is, the model has graced the cover of more magazines than the last three American Presidents and the Pope combined. Sure, she’s sexy, but so is a significant portion of America. Upton sells her sexuality and people gobble it up the way they play with those ‘Grab it!’ kiosks in the front entrance of Walmart, slapping dollar after dollar down certain they’ll be able to drop the claw unto a toy. In this scenario Kate’s elusive nudity represents the toy everyone wants to clamp that claw around and lift out into the open. I suppose this is the natural order of things–for sex to sell and crete conditions in which men are more likely to buy and try new things if they are laboring under the presumption that sex will somehow be rewarded.
I’m not here to laud the intelligence of her racket, but to suggest that the multi-billion dollar industry of selling sex is also an ouroborous-like creature that scrapes and claws to avoid imploding. Beauty is perception, and people who prescribe to most ‘look clicks’ are prescribing that beauty looks like these unrealistic model ad that if you want to be liked, this is who you have to look.
I’m not sure I like beauty as market force.