Erotic Capital: The SexWorkers Are On To Something

Erotic Capital.

A term coined by sociologist and author Catherine Hakim in the early 2000s.
Hakim suggests that women generally have more erotic capital than men and are well placed to exploit their erotic capital. Erotic capital can be useful in acquiring other forms of capital including social and economic capital. (Basically, you can make money and build status)

Erotic capital has been explored, applied, and demonstrated in mediums such as film. Xica (Da Silva dir. João Fernandes, 1976) is about a black Slave woman in 18th century Brazil, her rise in social standing and ascent to power through exercising and applying her erotic power during colonial times. Sis literally bought her own freedom (physical documents and everything) as well as economic and physical wealth by being sexy and knowing how to use it. The film is loosely based on a true story and you can still find the church that a slave master built for her in Brazil because he was so in love with her. Unfortunately for y’all, the film is very hard to find due to political reasons, the only reason I had access to this was because of my film degree… yes we get it, you studied film.
No one:

Tessa: “while I was studying film…”

Erotic capital can be determined by genetics but also consists of skills that can be trained, developed, and learned. Hakim states that erotic capital consists of 6 elements-

1. Beauty- relative and subjective depending on the beauty standards dominating different parts of the world.

2. Sexual attractiveness/ sex appeal- the way someone moves, talks and behaves, also subjective.

3. Social attractiveness- social grace, charm, social skills

4. Liveliness- a mixture of physical fitness, social energy, and good humor

5. Social presentation- style, face painting, perfume, hairstyles, accessories, etc, basically drip so get your money up.

6. Sexuality itself- sexual competence, energy, erotic imagination, playfulness, etc.

Erotic capital can be useful to both women and men but women have possessed more of it than men because of patriarchy. you can always blame everything on patriarchy. Gaslight them, ladies… its a man’s world right?

Arguably, it's important to interrogate the basis of her claims because society is truly not built for black women. I could try to word it but this babe said it best

“I argue that her primary concept — erotic capital — is overstretched, internally inconsistent, and sociological, glossing over the structures of race, class, and age that mediate women’s access to the resource. Moreover, I show the two ways that Hakim might remedy her theory but conclude that both are indefensible. In turn, the policy implications Hakim derives from her theory of erotic capital, along with the more general cultural notion that equates sexual desirability with power, are put in high relief. I conclude by noting the existence of a productive stream of sociological theory — the sexual fields framework (Green, 2008) — that develops a concept of erotic/sexual capital which predates Hakim’s work and offers a more sociologically grounded analysis of power and desirability.”- Adam Isaiah Green, 2013, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1363460712471109