Erotic capital

Erotic capital is power possessed by an individual as a result of his or her sexual attractiveness to others. It is one among other species of capital, including social capital, symbolic capital, and cultural capital.

The concept has been developed by sociologist Adam Isaiah Green (University of Toronto), who builds on Pierre Bourdieu's (1980) concept of capital. Green defines erotic capital as accruing to an individual due to the quality and quantity of attributes that he or she possesses which elicit an erotic response in another. Some of these attributes may be immutable, such as an individual's race or height, while others may be acquired through fitness training, plastic surgery, or a makeover, among other techniques.

Erotic capital is interconvertible with other forms of capital, as when actors parlay erotic capital into financial capital or social capital.

There is no single hegemonic form of erotic capital. On the contrary, currencies of erotic capital are quite variable, acquiring a hegemonic status in relation to the erotic preferences of highly specialized audiences that distinguish one sexual field from another (see Green 2005, 2008; Martin and George 2006).

See also

Sexuality portal

• Ascribed status
• Social status
• Power (philosophy)
• Social influence
• Status symbol
• Interpersonal attraction
• Beauty
• Eroticism
• Physical attractiveness
• Seduction
• Sex symbol
• Trophy wife

References

• Bourdieu, Pierre. 1980. The Logic of Practice. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
• Green, Adam Isaiah. 2008. "The Social Organization of Desire: The Sexual Fields Approach". Sociological Theory. 26: 25-50.
• Green, Adam Isaiah. "The Social Organization of Desire", Paper presented at the 2005 Annual American Sociological Association, Philadelphia.
• John Levi Martin and Matt George. 2006. "Theories of Sexual Stratification: Toward an Analytics of the Sexual Field and a Theory of Sexual Capital." Sociological Theory. 24:107-132.

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