ABSTRACT
This chapter denaturalizes the many ways the people reference the term and to map the various significations that are articulated together through this signifier. It debate over whether or not such sexy portrayals of stars in animal rights campaigns are necessarily objectifying to women. The chapter examines two Hollywood films in which celebrities perform as environmentalists. It is motivated in part by a desire to consider the possibilities and limitations of articulating environmental concerns to a broader audience through a sexy star. The chapter provides an initial scholarly attempt at taking the label sexy seriously as an affective structure of feeling with consequences for the times. In accounting for the gendered and sexualized politics of the environmentally based films, the analysis illustrates how Civil Action (CA) and Erin Brockovich (EB) articulate anti-toxic activism with sexiness. CA and EB are important sites of cultural struggle because they have become a part of the current popular imaginary about anti-toxic activism.
