Next Gen News

Catherine Hakim is a sociologist at the London School of Economics, who has written a book called Honey Money. "The world smiles at good-looking people, and they smile back", is its subtitle, and it goes on to posit this theory: that we have erotic capital, and this divides into six categories: beauty; sexual attractiveness; social skills like grace, charm and discreet flirtation; liveliness, which is a mixture of physical fitness, social energy and good humour; social presentation, including dress, jewellery and other adornments; and finally, sexuality itself, competence, energy, imagination.

"I think it's true generally of Anglo-Saxon puritan cultures, and that includes Britain - and the rest of the world values erotic capital and therefore you might say it was normal rather than abnormal. Abnormality is the Anglo-Saxon response. The research evidence is from Britain and America so it's difficult to generalise from."

"Well, I think it has a lot to do with Christianity."

fact

(Actually, she also says it in her book: "The Puritan ethic did a lot more than promote capitalism. It seems to have ruined sex for a lot of people in the western world". Evidence base? That I'd like to see.)