Anyone heard of the book Erotic Capital?

[PuertoRicanPinup]

Has anyone heard of or read Catherine Hakim's book Erotic Capital? You can read the first chapter on Kindle for free. I'm going to download the book, seems interesting.

[anomar]

Oh wow, this is looks up my alley . Thank you for pointing it out! I'll definitely read it.

[PuertoRicanPinup]

The author makes a good point: beauty is one type of capital that those in power in a meritocracy can't hoard for themselves, or profit from, so they will downplay its validity as a source of human capital.

[TigersMilk]

Seems like a good book. Will you post how the book turned out for you? I wonder if she discusses the downside of being dubbed beautiful. Maybe that it's not a downside but a downside to those who don't know how to use their looks to their advantage.

[anomar]

Just got this from the library (maybe about 50 pages in) and I'm really into it! So far she discusses the acknowledged traits of monetary capital, social capital, and human capital, and argues that erotic capital is the fourth resource, and that it's not really acknowledged because it's something that women tend to have more of then men.

The second chapter discusses the disparity of sexual desire between men and women by comparing surveys of sexual activity in different countries, and then it seems to be going into explicitly talking about how women can acknowledge that disparity and use it to advance themselves in getting more of the human/social/monetary capital. With a particular focus on women in developed/first world countries.

Very thought provoking and interesting stuff, also more accessible than I thought it would be coming from a sociologist. I highly recommend it.

TM, there was one part where she talks about how women tend to react to male attention by either figuring out how to use it for their own advancement, or by becoming more introverted and less integrated into society. I think she will touch upon it pretty thoroughly later on in the book.