Catherine Hakim

“We live in a sexualised age: that’s the trend. Let’s just relax … There’s not much point in swimming against the tide.”

Embrace your sex-appeal if you have it or start working on it ASAP if you don’t could summarize the Erotic Capital theory.

Catherine Hakim started perhaps early in life as a hard core feminist but years of research have soften her point of view and today she even claims that “feminism has done little to help the advancement of women”.

A Senior Research Fellow in the Sociology Department at the highly respected London School of Economics has a new theory: Brainy is good but in our overly developed media-driven world, looks have become a valuable personal asset, alongside economic capital and women generally have more erotic capital than men because they work harder at it.

Not confined to physical beauty, Erotic Capital is defined as a combination of “sex appeal, charm and social skills, physical fitness and liveliness, sexual competence and skills in self-presentation”. Hakim claims that men and women with erotic capital can expect to earn 10% to 15% more than those without.

“All intelligent, educated women are feminists — but radicalised feminism rejects sex and sensuality. The thing that hit me one day is that there is no difference between the way patriarchy and feminism regard women who make the most of themselves when they aren’t the most brilliantly intelligent thing in the world.”

It’s good news for the Bimbos who didn’t graduate from Harvard but still deserve to be part of society. And even greater news for the Smarty Pants who can feel free to now remove those prescription eyeglasses and add fake eyelashes (you too Catherine!).

Brains is good, Beauty is great. But these godly gifts are often inherited and won’t get you anywhere without a little something extra. The good news is that now you can work on all these other qualities to increase your Erotic Capital and add some HOT factor to your persona.

You still need some role models?

Here’s Hakim’s list of Who’s got it:

The Obama’s : “From his presentation to the way he looks and speaks, Obama’s got it. Even during the campaign, he and his wife were said to work out on Air Force One, and their physical fitness plays a large part in that allure. Michelle didn’t want to be wheeled out as ‘the wife’ in the beginning, but in the end she made a tremendous effort and showed that she had this ability to connect with people.”,

Carla Bruni & David Beckham “obviously”, Gordon Ramsey “who has more personality than cooking skills”, Natalie Massenet from Net-a-Porter “wears perfectly the clothes she sells”, Beyonce & Cleopatra of course!

And I sure Catherine Hakim would add that anyone who reads She is French is on the fast track to Erotic Capital

~ She

Thanks Olivier!