Annette Lynch of the University of Northern Iowa will present “The Rise of Pop Culture Porn Chic: Media, Fashion, and Emerging Paths to Gender Justice on a College Campus,” from 3:30 to 5 p.m. Oct. 4, in the Willa Cather Dining Complex, Red Cloud A.
This is the second event in the Fall 2017 Women’s and Gender Studies / Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design Colloquia on gender, fashion and the media.
Lynch’s lecture will discuss how the mainstreaming of pornographic imagery into fashion and popular culture at the turn of the millennium in the United States and Great Britain signaled a dramatic shift in the construction of femininity and masculinity. She will share research from her book, “Porn Chic: Exploring the Contours of Raunch Eroticism,” focusing closely on film, campus culture, Facebook profiles and marketing campaigns that promote “raunch as the new cool.”
Famous for questioning the status quo, Lynch’s research observes how hyper-sexualization trends— from sexy Halloween costumes marketed to 6-year-olds, to explicitly sexualized images across media— have served not to liberate men and women as claimed, but instead play a role in rising incidences of sexual assault, rape, predatory behaviors and passivity when students are confronted with relationship violence both on and off campus.
This event is free and open to the public.
Lynch is director of the School of Applied Human Sciences and a professor in the Textiles and Apparel Program at the University of Northern Iowa.
