Sexual Fields and Women’s Sexual Capital: Online Challenges and Insights

Abstract In this chapter, I argue for a meso-level approach to sexual capital, which sees beauty, sex appeal and sexuality as convertible assets, to illuminate structural gender inequalities. I compare three approaches to sexual capital: (1) the “erotic capital” approach, best known from Hakim, focused on agency, individual action and power; (2) a field-specific approach by Green, focused on local sexual fields and collective sexual life; and (3) a field-specific approach by Kaplan and Illouz, focused on the socio-political field in which sexual capital conversion takes place. Drawing from online ethnographic research at a women’s oriented manosphere group, I demonstrate that structural inequalities become obscured when sexual capital and fields are defined on a micro-social level. Yet a macro-level approach risks universalizing sexual meaning-making, something particularly evident in online sites where societal structures are less clearly defined. Examining gender inequalities in sexual capital requires engaging with both the socio-political context and the local sexual field. This meso-level approach illuminates a tricky sexual capital paradox that women face today: not using their sexual capital may keep them in disadvantaged positions but using it under patriarchal terms may ultimately reinforce gender inequality. This sexual capital paradox should guide future research on gender inequality, sexual capital and sexual fields.