Sex in Art and Advertisement

Sex and Its Depiction in Art and Advertisement Sex, being a part of the human experience, has for very long been depicted as an intimate activity. However, sex has existed as a marketable commodity since the Roman Empire, and still exists as such to this day. Eduardo Manet’s Olympia, 1865, confronts its contemporary society with prostitution, depicting a reclined prostitute staring directly at the viewer, making the viewer see the scene from the point of view of the customer’s. Manet’s criticism of sex as a commodity is shown in the discomfort and unease intended to be caused by the prostitute’s bold gaze. In the service industry, people are expected to fill their roles happily and willingly for the sake of the customer, yet the figure in Olympia’s defiantly direct stare without a trace of joy shows that this is not always the case. This confrontational message concerning the role of sex in society is comparable to the message in modern advertisements for Trojan condoms. Both these advertisements and the Olympia deal with the roles of the parties involved in sex, and the reactions of each party to the other. The Trojan condom advertisement depicts a dark bar, in which there are several pigs seated with drinks in their hands at different tables. At each table, there is a young woman who seems disinterested in the pigs’ advances, or otherwise clearly off-put by their attention. At the bottom of the page is a table of pigs sitting along without a woman at all. In the back of the bar, however, illuminated, stand a man and a woman smiling and enjoying each other’s company. Of the women in the bar, only the woman in the back standing with the man allows the man near her, while the rest of the women lean away from the pigs around them. The bottom of the advertisement reads, “Evolve. Choose the one who uses a condom every time. ” (Fig. 1. Trojan Evolve campaign) Therein lies the sex and leisure element of the advertisement: the promise that the man who

Cited: 1.T.J Clark, “Olympia’s Choice,” in The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and his Follower. (Princeton University Press, 1999), 130. 2. Fig 1. Trojan Evolve Campaign, 2008 (accessed April 8, 2013). -------------------------------------------- [ 1 ]. T.J Clark, “Olympia’s Choice,” in The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and his Follower. (Princeton University Press, 1999), 130. [ 2 ]. T.J Clark, “Olympia’s Choice,” 130. [ 3 ]. T.J Clark, “Olympia’s Choice,” 132 [ 4 ]. T.J Clark, “Olympia’s Choice, 137