Sexual Abuse, Sexy Dressing, and the Eroticization of Domination

A semiotic analysis of dress as the production of socially meaningful signs supports the feminist analysis that sees sexy costumes as loaded with allusions to abuse, and as a factor in eroticizing male domination of women. But the same analysis suggests the possibility of pleasure/resistance through sexy dress, and particularly the possibility of eroticizing female sexual autonomy. The reality of male abuse of women burdens or discourages the activities of fantasy, play, invention and experiment through which we have whatever hope we have of evolving or transcending our current modes of male and female sexuality. For this reason, men have at least a potential erotic interest in fighting against it.