The most recent issue of The Economist titled “Sex and Power” hit stands on September 27th2018.  At first glance of the cover you will immediately see a silhouette of a woman with an unknown hand on her (Bar, 2018). The woman appears to be outlined in a pink triangle shape with her arms stretched out.  The text above the image reads “Sex and power. #MeToo one year on”, this signifies a much deeper meaning the to image. The text is what amplifies the conative potential of the image to develop into something greater (Storey, 2015). If you look deeper into the image you will understand that the silhouette of woman in the triangle shape is actually part of a mans tie, while her raised arms are in the shape of a collar. This image reflects that standards of what powerful men think of women, from the perfectly proportioned silhouette and the fact she is just an object as a piece of a tie.

The story behind the Economist cover originates from the case against American movie producer Harvey Weinstein, that surfaced the media last year. In October 2017, Weinstein had been accused of sexuality assaulting and abusing more than 80 women (Isaacs, 2018). The original origin of the phrase “Me too” started in 2006, but after actress Melissa Milano publicized the hash tag “#MeToo” on twitter for victims of sexual abuse to come forward it resulted in a global outpour of individuals to share their stories. Many of those people that came forward were well known celebrities; Zarkov and Davis (2018) argued that when society makes powerful men the perpetrator and young celebrities as victims, it carries a danger of forgetting that sexual harassment and violence are a part of everyday life for many women and men. There is a bigger picture behind this where society should be looking at larger power structures that allow powerful men to treat women as their sex objects instead of public ‘blaming and shaming’ of specific ‘bad men’ (Zarkov & Davis, 2018).

References


Issacs, D. (2018). Sexual harassment. Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health. 
54(4), 341-342. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jpc.13877

Storey, J. (2015). Cultural theory and popular culture. 7th edition. Oxford, U.K.: Routledge

Zarkov, D & Davis, K. (2018). Ambiguities and dilemmas around #MeToo: #ForHow Long and #WhereTo?. European Journal of Womens Studies. 25(1), 3-9. Retrieved from http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1350506817749436

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