Ooh, Shiny! From Catwoman and Mrs. Peel to the Latex Submissive

Abstract

This chapter addresses the prevalence of the shiny body in the kink aesthetic. Through an exploration of Freud's ideas on fetishism and Benjamin's thoughts on the aura, the author argues that the aesthetic of the kink community is shiny and that quality is often overlooked, and also that if we do look at the shiny kink aesthetic, we find a process that leads to a fetishized subject and to us dismissing that the objectification of people is unethical. By exploring the different qualities of the shiny body as well as the relationship between subject and object and the aura – achieved in part through the author's reflections on his own experiences with the attraction to shiny objects from his early childhood and adolescence – the resulting analysis articulates the effects of donning a fetishized shiny outfit and offers a theoretical re-empowerment of the fetishized body.