CASTRO, J. C. L. Sexualization of advertising and the imperative of enjoyment. Book of abstracts of Complicating Debates about the Sexualisation of Culture: an International Conference, Londres (Inglaterra), 2011.

Resumo: Sex has always represented a serious tool for advertising, and it is difficult to assess quantitative variations of its use over time. It is possible, though, to discuss a qualitative change. In the period of the making of a consumer society, the challenge for advertising was to turn people into consumers. This required to create a lack and therefore a desire. In other words, the idea was to replicate the very psychic structure of hysteria, a then-prevalent pathology, related to sexual dissatisfaction. In contrast, in a mature consumer society, people already define themselves as consumers. The place of lack is preempted by a particular class of objects of consumption, while desire gives way to enjoyment. We have here the structure of perversion. At the same time, advertising draws on, in an unprecedented way, situations involving sexual perversions.

Palavras-chave: sex, advertising, desire, enjoyment, hysteria, perversion.