Sexual suggestiveness is visual, verbal, written, or behavioral material or action with sexual undertones that imply sexual intent, with the aim of provoking sexual arousal.
There are variations in the perception and display of sexual suggestiveness, including but not limited to gender, culture and generation. Different cultures and different generations have varying views on what is considered to be sexually suggestive. For example, in the majority of Western cultures, it is normal for a woman to wear shorts and bare her legs on a hot, sunny day, but a woman with naked flesh exposed would be considered promiscuous in certain cultures around the world. In evolutionary terms, sexual suggestiveness is a mode from which sexual mates are gained. Therefore, the ability to use sexual suggestiveness effectively is a trait that is part of sexual selection.
Displays of sexual suggestiveness can exhibit a diverse variety, such as depictions of attractive women in swimsuit advertising, sexually themed music, sexting, erotic lingerie, or wolf whistling. Sexual suggestiveness may also involve nudity, or the exposure of the nipples, genitals, buttocks or other taboo areas of the body. Even a brand name or phrase can be considered to be sexually suggestive if it has strong sexual connotations or undertones.
In some cases, displays of sexual suggestiveness may be misinterpreted, which may lead to dangerous or harmful situations.
Evolutionary perspective
From an evolutionary point of view, sexual suggestiveness evolved in order to aid in securing a sexual partner or mate. Once the individual has decided on a mate to pursue, sexual suggestiveness helps in attracting the mate; this is a skill which has been sexually selected (sexual selection) for during evolution. Sexually suggestive behaviors include things such as "showing more skin" and flirting. Both of these examples are behaviors which the individual would intentionally display. There is also research to suggest that sexually suggestive behaviors may not always be deliberate. Unbeknownst to the individual, factors such as the menstrual cycle, voice pitch and rate of money spending can all have an effect on sexual success and sexually suggestive behavior. For example, when women were in the workplace and ovulating, they were more likely to engage in sexually suggestive behaviors, e.g., showing more skin; further, women who work as lap dancers earn more money when they are in the ovulating stage. This may be because the female unwittingly behaves in a more sexual way and therefore puts out more sexually suggestive cues. There is not, however, any evidence to show that these women are aware that their actions or earnings are intrinsically linked to their menstrual cycle.
21st century
The rise of the media, advertising and film industries, as well as the growth of the fashion industry, are all contributing factors to increase sexually suggestive content in an everyday setting. There are far more displays of sexually suggestive behavior in modern-day life than there ever has been before and not just within advertising. The idea that sex sells is evident in many aspects of daily modern life, particularly within social media and film where female sexual ornaments are a focal point. For example, many films include additional sex scenes and sexually suggestive female characters regardless of the film's narrative.Benshoff, H. M., & Griffin, S. (2011). America on film: Representing race, class, gender, and sexuality at the movies. John Wiley & Sons.
The progression of the Internet and social media means that sexual content is far more available and accessible in the 21st century than ever before. This has a knock-on effect on people's sexualization and sexual behavior. Children's sexuality develops at an earlier age if they have been exposed to more sexual content when young. For example, young adolescents engage in more sexual behaviors if they have been exposed to more sexual content in the media or on television.Lenhart, A. (2009). Teens and Sexting: How and why minor teens are sending sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude images via text messaging.Strasburger, V. C. (1995). Adolescents and the media: medical and psychological impact. Sage Publications, Inc. On average, females become pubescent earlier in their development if they have been exposed to sexual content or sexual behavior. Most psychologists agree that this physical display of sexuality is due to evolutionary reasons and that girls develop their sexuality (e.g., behaving sexually suggestively) at an earlier age in order to sexually compete with other women and successfully reproduce.Harris, R. J., & Scott, C. L. (Eds.) (2002). Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.
Misinterpretation
The increase in sexual content in modern society often results in a more nonchalant approach to sexually suggestive behavior. People, predominantly women, often act in a way that they themselves do not consider to be sexually suggestive but which can be misinterpreted by others. For example, wearing clothes or skirts/shorts that show skin is not something that most Western women would consider to be overtly provocative, but it is still regarded as sexually suggestive by others. Misconstruing people's behaviour can have disastrous consequences, contributing to harassment and rape culture.
Evolutionary psychology explains that this misinterpretation is the result of sexual selection. Men have adapted through sexual selection to have the maximum number of offspring possible, and therefore exhibit certain behaviors that facilitate maximum reproduction. Men perceive sexually suggestive behavior and other sexual cues, including biological ornaments, as signs of reproductive ability and willingness. The hypothesis of rape as an adaption states that the rape of reproductive-age females was favoured by direct selection in order to increase the chance of reproductive success.Thornhill, R., & Palmer, C. T. (2001). A Natural History of Rape. MIT press. Sexually suggestive behavior and biological ornamentation are signs of sexual maturity and thus females who display more of these behaviors, or who have more obvious ornamentation, are more likely to be at a higher risk of harassment, or even rape. This evolutionary explanation also extends to women. At their most fertile stage in their menstrual cycle, during estrus, women are far less likely to engage in risk taking behaviors such as walking alone late at night, than women who are in the least fertile stage of their menstrual cycle, the luteal phase or women using hormonal contraception. This is because women who are in the luteal phase or women using a hormonal contraceptive are much less likely to become pregnant after sexual intercourse than estrus women are.
These evolutionary explanations serve only to increase the psychological understanding of sexual behaviors. Sexual suggestiveness, rape, and all other sexual behaviors, are evidenced to be products of past evolution. In the case of rape, however, just because some evidence indicates that it may be natural does not make it acceptable.Thornhill, R., & Palmer, C. T. (2000). A Natural History of Rape. MIT Press.
Flirting
Flirting can be sexually suggestive, which can intentionally elicit a sexual response from another person. Research has identified different motivations for engaging in flirting behaviors. There is flirting with a sexual motivation, which is done with a view to engaging in human sexual activity and there is also flirting with a fun motivation, in which the interaction itself is the pleasurable part. An instrumental motivation of flirting behavior is flirting performed in order to accomplish an instrumental goal, such as getting someone to buy you a drink. However, flirting can sometimes lead to unintentional responses. If the motivation behind sexually suggestive behavior is misinterpreted or miscommunicated, then a sexual response could be elicited where it is not wanted. If escalated, this can lead to sexual harassment in the workplace or sexual coercion in a relationship. In line with evolutionary explanations of sexually suggestive behavior, research has shown that women are more likely to consider the use of flirting as being for relational purposes, and males are more likely to interpret female flirting as having a sexual motivation.
Gender differences
There are some reported gender differences between how sexual suggestiveness is perceived. Males and females have different thresholds for the perception of sexual suggestiveness or intent. Males are, in general, more sexually occupied than females. To support this assumption, research shows that males perceive people as more interested in a sexual encounter than females do.Shotland, R. L., & Craig, J. M. (1988). Can men and women differentiate between friendly and sexually interested behavior?. Social Psychology Quarterly, 66-73. It has also been suggested that males find it difficult to differentiate between liking, love and sexual intent, and in this case sexual suggestiveness. Unfortunately, this difficulty in separation between the two from the male's point of view may lead to rape or other sexual assault. During the evolution of human sexuality, the fact that females are the choosy gender meant that males who were able to quickly detect a female's willingness were the males who passed along their genes effectively. In light of this, males, therefore, tend to read sexual acceptance signals in friendly actions even when this may not be the females intention.Thornhill, R., & Palmer, C. T. (2000). Why men rape. The Sciences, 40(1), 30-36. Chicago Females are, however, better at reading platonic signals from the opposite sex and at differentiating between liking, loving and sexual suggestiveness.
There are also gender differences between how sexual suggestiveness is displayed via flirting. Recent research has shown that females are more likely than males to flirt with the intention of developing a new relationship, or with the intention of intensifying an existing relationship. It has also been found that females use flirting as a way of assessing the interest of a potential mate; as the end result is sexual activity, it can be inferred that this is a sexually suggestive act. On the other hand, a variety of different researchers have found that males are significantly more sexually motivated in their displays of sexual suggestiveness (such as flirting) than females. The research done by Clark and Hatfield (1989) supports these assumptions by clearly suggesting that female courtship is motivated by relationship development and that male courtship is motivated by sexual desire. It is these gender differences that can explain the potential miscommunication of social actions.
Cultural differences