Safe is the new Sexy

While traveling in Europe these last two weeks, I noticed a provoking ad for Clinique make-up products: Safe is the new Sexy. I was so pleasantly surprised by a message that seemed to affirm women's strength and self-preservation that I made a note to blog about it as soon as I returned to the States.

Initially, I found myself wanting to congratulate the make-up mogul for a campaign that, on a literal level, encouraged women to use proper SPF sun protection; and on a figurative level, seemed to imply that women should, indeed, have the freedom to be safe and sexy at the same time.

Too often, our society infers the opposite--that rape, for example, is a woman's fault for dressing provocatively, or that wearing a condom is not cool if you really care for somebody. As a result, we aren't used to seeing "safe" and "sexy" in the same sentence.

So I found myself in the Rome Airport gawking at a slogan that I desperately wanted to believe. Yes, I thought. Women should be allowed to exude their sexuality proudly without fear of violence or abuse.

But sadly, we don't live in a world that makes this possible. Women have to be careful, very careful, in this age of HIV/AIDS, date rape, and domestic violence. According to NOW (The National Organization of Women):
Every year approximately 132,000 women report that they have been victims of rape or attempted rape, and more than half of them knew their attackers. It's estimated that two to six times that many women are raped, but do not report it. Every year 1.2 million women are forcibly raped by their current or former male partners, some more than once.

NOW also reports that women are 10 times more likely to be victimized by an intimate partner than are men.

So at least for now, sexy is not always safe. Yet Clinique continues to hope for the best, handing out free string bikinis at its product release.


I admire the sentiment, but their logic is flawed. More "sexy" doesn't directly equal more "safe." We need better awareness campaigns about women's sexuality and safety. We need a cultural paradigm shift, one that implies that "risky" is many times not "sexy" at all, but "dangerous" in its consequences. Both women and men need to work at creating a safe space for sexual expression, one in which mutual respect triumphs over fear.

Planned Parenthood, who has also used this slogan in the past, has a more realistic grip on its implementation.


So, Clinique, while it's possible that string bikinis are a start, you have to admit that we have a long way to go before women can truly feel safe and sexy at the same time.