Simach 1
Shelly Simach
December 1st, 2023
ENG100
Ryan Stafford
Striptease Effects on Society: Eliminating Sexual Stigma
A series of essays in Roland Barthes's "Mythologies" reveals the unordinary aspects of
daily activities. Specifically, Barthes's essay "Striptease" explores the desexualizing of women
when stripped naked. Barthes's allegorical interpretation of striptease emphasizes the importance
of symbolism by providing objects with more profound meaning than their literal purpose. He
uses stripping as a metaphor to examine social and cultural dynamics. Barthe's engaging
approach through a paradoxical lens delves into the literal performance of striptease, revealing
the fears, stigma, and people's desire for control that reflect cultural beliefs and structures.
One might argue that a woman who reveals herself through the act of stripping will
sexualize her. However, Barthes states the concept of "mythic speech" culturally suppresses the
erotism from stripping, resulting in a state of fear. Specifically, "a pretense of fear, as if eroticism
here went no further than a sort of delicious terror." The dichotomy that Barthes refers to
between the sexualization of a woman and her objectification presents the reader with the
concept of "fear." He indicates many signs that desexualize a woman through striptease. Barthes
claims that clothing is artificial. The fear that is identified is not through the removal of clothes,
but the exposition of the demystification or ruining of the woman's naked body. He
acknowledges the G-string as a "pure and geometrical shape, by its hard and shiny material, bars
the way to the sexual parts like a sword of purity, and definitively drives the woman back into a
mineral world, the (precious) stone being here the irrefutable symbol of the absolute object, that
Shelly Simach
December 1st, 2023
ENG100
Ryan Stafford
Striptease Effects on Society: Eliminating Sexual Stigma
A series of essays in Roland Barthes's "Mythologies" reveals the unordinary aspects of
daily activities. Specifically, Barthes's essay "Striptease" explores the desexualizing of women
when stripped naked. Barthes's allegorical interpretation of striptease emphasizes the importance
of symbolism by providing objects with more profound meaning than their literal purpose. He
uses stripping as a metaphor to examine social and cultural dynamics. Barthe's engaging
approach through a paradoxical lens delves into the literal performance of striptease, revealing
the fears, stigma, and people's desire for control that reflect cultural beliefs and structures.
One might argue that a woman who reveals herself through the act of stripping will
sexualize her. However, Barthes states the concept of "mythic speech" culturally suppresses the
erotism from stripping, resulting in a state of fear. Specifically, "a pretense of fear, as if eroticism
here went no further than a sort of delicious terror." The dichotomy that Barthes refers to
between the sexualization of a woman and her objectification presents the reader with the
concept of "fear." He indicates many signs that desexualize a woman through striptease. Barthes
claims that clothing is artificial. The fear that is identified is not through the removal of clothes,
but the exposition of the demystification or ruining of the woman's naked body. He
acknowledges the G-string as a "pure and geometrical shape, by its hard and shiny material, bars
the way to the sexual parts like a sword of purity, and definitively drives the woman back into a
mineral world, the (precious) stone being here the irrefutable symbol of the absolute object, that
