The Politics of Sex: Why Being On Top Matters

Kevin Spacey in the new Netflix series "House of Cards"

Like many twentysomethings today--anti-socially addicted to the internet and well-rehearsed in potentially detrimental binge habits, I love watching netflix. Recently the multibillion dollar powerhouse decided to release their first ever series entitled "House of Cards"--a political drama following the stereotypical corruption and oftentimes questionable decisions of the most powerful country in the world. Being a person who loves politics, quick wit, and cleverly thought out back-stories and sub-plots I quickly fell in love with the show's seductively intricate expose on modern day US politics. Also being heavily interested in feminist politics and especially the way in which the media both regurgitates and shapes our views about sexuality, I found the show to do a pretty great (although frustrating) job at depicting a lot of the sad realities women face in rising to power---staying there. Oftentimes in the show (and in life) this came as a result of women utilizing their bodies and sexuality as hyper-sexualized objects in order to receive an "equal" spot at the sometimes sadomasochist political table.

Underwood (Spacey) & Barnes (Mara) in one of their secret meetings.

While the overall theme and lens of the show is very masculine focused as far as documenting the cut-throat individualism often associated with men's positions of power, the show does have a few notable women who also obtain a certain degree of power--though with notable differences. In one episode about halfway through the series' first season, the main protagonist Congressman Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) is in the middle of an elicit (though not shocking) affair with journalist Zoe Barnes (Kate Mara) who is trying her best to rise up the journalist ladder in the competitive Washington DC news reporting climate. When faced with the reality that their physical relationship is now inextricably connected with their professional one, Frank hits her quite transparently with this great one-liner:

A great man once said, everything is about sex. Except sex. Sex is about power.

Though everyone realizes the implicit communicative act that is sex, I was blown away by how much his eerie-confession hit home. As the series progressed and the two continued their power-driven sexual battle-of-wills, the correlation between sex and power became even more well defined. Sex then became overtly recognized as a sociopolitical tool, a mirror exposing the ways in which our relationships are constructed in real positions of power and influence.

As someone who is very much still working out the underlying messages of their own sexual identity, the reality that what goes on in the bedroom as being directly related to social relationships outside makes perfect sense. Sex is a social act—it’s about vulnerability and negotiating. It is (and should hopefully always be) about mutual consenting individuals getting "theirs" and being an accommodating partner in return. But I’m not naïve, and the reality is that power relationships are being negotiated in every corner of our lives (including our most personal ones). Sex then is rarely just about the physical.

Sex is infinitely influenced by cultural constructs and assumptions about gender roles, and when combined with institutionalized positions of power and privilege (especially when it comes those in charge of policy making) it can be a form of control and a perpetuation of modern-day sadomasochism. bell hooks-- a feminist, social activist, and professor of English at City College in New York has written several books about the intersectionality of women, love, sex, and systems of power and "domination." In her book "Communion: the female search for love" she criticizes the hyper-sexualization of power saying:

The rise in sexual sadomasochism both in everyday life and in our intimate lives seems to be a direct response to the unresolved changes in the nature of gender roles... Let's face the fact that it helps to eroticize domination if you feel you can't change it. Women and men do not know what to do, what roles to play. Sexual sadomachoism broadens the playing field, gives everyone access to more roles, without creating concrete changes in the ways power and affection are distributed in relationships, in our public and private lives (p. 228)

The eroticization of Zoe Barnes' helpless character in the face of her inability to change the nature of their relationship is palpable. It is the same helplessness many women climbing to power fear in the face of the overwhelmingly double-standard of women's sexuality narratives--that regardless of how sexually "liberated" they may feel, they are still very much at the mercy of men when it comes to translating that sexual power into the boardroom. Though Barnes' character tries her hardest to take her rightful spot at the table of power, the fact that she is still a woman playing in the male-dominated world of politics greatly affects the possibility of her ascension--leaving her in a no-win situation in which her sexuality is pinned against her. Frank Underwood and Zoe Barnes' relationship in ‘House of Cards’ therefore brings up very honest questions about the blurred lines between sexual and professional politics.

The point I’m trying to make is this: that sex matters, but for much more beyond the blatantly obvious. And the effects of sadomasochism as a response to the often blurred lines of our sexual politics are only pushing us farther back from our goals of mutual fulfillment in and outside sex. We need to accept that as women’s power shouldn’t come from lying on our backs but utilizing those same backbones to sit straighter at the tables of authority and equality we deserve.

Though not all of us will find ourselves in positions of sexual and professional submission as blatant as Mara's journalist character, many more of us WILL be exposed at some point to the inequality that still exists in the politics of sex and we must address it honestly and critically. Paying attention to the ways in which power is utilized and expressed in sexual acts can then lead to a more constructive egalitarian discourse outside the bedroom in creating real sustainable change in the realm of gender equality. To use the words of Rebecca Walker:.

"If sex is a form of communication let us think about what we want to say and how will we say it." 

Now if only inequality was as easy to topple as a house of cards.