Porno-chic et indécence médiatique : contribution interdisciplinaire portant sur les enjeux communicationnels et socio-juridiques des publicités sexuelles en France et aux Etats-Unis

Aujourd'hui plus que jamais, le strip-tease de la publicité bat son plein dans les sociétés contemporaines. Dans les médias, les connotations sexuelles se multiplient et s'intensifient. Cette sexualisation des productions culturelles qui s'inscrit parfaitement dans le concept de Porno-chic développé par B. McNair est depuis quelques années génératrice de tensions et de questionnements stratégiques auxquels cette thèse se propose de tenter d'apporter des réponses. Au-delà des questionnements traditionnels sur la pornographie, cette étude est centrée sur l'analyse des publicités sexuelles car si dans ce domaine la demande émanant des différents acteurs concernés et plus spécialement des professionnels et du régulateur se fait croissante, la recherche n'a eu que peu l'occasion de réfléchir sur les enjeux communicationnels, socioculturels et juridiques d'un tel phénomène. Quels sont donc les différents types de publicités sexuelles ? Sur quels médias sont-elles diffusées ? Pourquoi les publicitaires font-ils appel à ce genre de messages ? Quels sont les effets réels sur les individus et la société ? Ce phénomène met-il en péril la cohésion sociale ? Comment alors concilier liberté d'expression et ordre public ? Quel est le cadre juridique des publicités sexuelles ? Et surtout, quelle solution proposer en termes de régulation et de gestion de ce phénomène face à la demande sociale ? À travers une approche complexe et interdisciplinaire basée sur une démarche multi-méthodes ainsi que l'adoption du paradigme de pluralisme juridique, la présente thèse propose un regard nouveau sur cette problématique et s'interroge sur la pertinence du cadrage social au regard des données scientifiques. Une synthèse éthique présentant non seulement les aspects téléologiques mais également déontologiques du phénomène, mettra en lumière la relation triangulaire existant entre producteurs, régulateurs et récepteurs. Outre une analyse communicationnelle, une réflexion critique et prospective intégrée dans un objectif de recherche applicable sera menée à propos de la gestion de ce type de contenus. Une ouverture interculturelle mettant en regard la France, traditionnellement érotique, et les États-Unis, royaume du politiquement correct soutiendra l'analyse. À la croisée des Cultural Studies, de la Sex Research, de la sociologie des médias, de la sociologie juridique et de la psychologie sociale des médias, cette thèse permet un apport cognitif, théorique et pratique, ainsi que nous l'espérons, une incitation à la recherche interdisciplinaire et à l'étude de cet objet incontestablement d'actualité.More than ever, sex in advertising has become widespread and common place in today's societies. In the media, sexually oriented appeals have increased over time and seem more explicit than in the past. This sexualization of mainstream culture that fits in perfectly with the concept of Porno-chic developed by B. McNair has generated tensions and strategic questions to which this work will attempt to provide answers. Beyond the traditional thoughts regarding pornography, this study focuses on the analysis of sexual advertisements. In fact, even though demand from various stakeholders and especially practitioners and regulator is increasing, research has had little opportunity to consider communicational, sociocultural and legal issues and stakes of such a phenomenon. What are the different types of sexy ads? In which media are they broadcasted? Why do advertisers use this kind of messages? What are the real effects on individuals and society? Is this phenomenon putting at risk social cohesion? How to conciliate freedom of expression and public order? What is the legal framework of sex in advertising? And most importantly, what solution can we offer in terms of regulation, control and management of this challenging phenomenon facing social demand? Through a complex and interdisciplinary approach based on a multi-method work and the adoption of the legal pluralism's paradigm, this doctoral dissertation proposes a new perspective on Sex in Advertising and stresses the relevance of the combination between social reality and scientific data. An ethical synthesis, mixing teleological and deontological concerns will emphasize the triangular relationship between producers, regulators and receivers. Communicational analysis as well as critical thinking and prospective approach will be conducted regarding the control of this type of content. Intercultural point of view will also enhance the analysis by comparing France, traditionally seen as an erotic country, and the United States, more politically correct. This PhD dissertation in Information and Communication Sciences combines varying disciplinary fields such as Cultural Studies, Sex Research, Media Sociology, Sociology of Law or Social Psychology. It provides a cognitive, conceptual, theoretical and practical contribution and hopefully an incentive to interdisciplinary research on Sex in Advertising

Modularity and Intrinsic Evolvability of Hsp90-Buffered Change

Hsp90 controls dramatic phenotypic transitions in a wide array of morphological features of many organisms. The genetic-background dependence of specific abnormalities and their response to laboratory selection suggested Hsp90 could be an ‘evolutionary capacitor’, allowing developmental variation to accumulate as neutral alleles under normal conditions and manifest selectable morphological differences during environmental stress. The relevance of Hsp90-buffered variation for evolution has been most often challenged by the idea that large morphological changes controlled by Hsp90 are unconditionally deleterious. To address this issue, we tested an Hsp90-buffered abnormality in Drosophila for unselected pleiotropic effects and correlated fitness costs. Up to 120-fold differences in penetrance among six highly related selection lines, started from an initially small number of flies and rapidly selected for and against a deformed eye trait (dfe), did not translate into measurable differences in any of several tests of viability, lifespan or competitive fitness. Nor were 17 dfe Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) associated with fitness effects in over 1,400 recombinant lines. Our ability to detect measurable effects of inbreeding, media environment and the white mutation in the selection line backgrounds independent of dfe penetrance suggests that, within the limitations of laboratory tests of fitness, this large morphological change controlled by Hsp90 was selectable independent of strong, correlated and unconditionally deleterious effects—abundant, polygenic variation hidden by Hsp90 allows potentially deleterious alleles to be readily replaced during selection by less deleterious alleles with similar phenotypic effects. Hsp90 links environmental stress with the expression of developmental variation controlling unprecedented morphological plasticity. As outlined here and in the companion paper of this issue, the complex genetic architecture of Hsp90-buffered variation supports a remarkable modularity of Hsp90 effects on quantitative and qualitative phenotypes, consistent with the ‘Hsp90 capacitor hypothesis’ and standard quantitative genetic models of threshold traits

Control of Canalization and Evolvability by Hsp90

Partial reduction of Hsp90 increases expression of morphological novelty in qualitative traits of Drosophila and Arabidopsis, but the extent to which the Hsp90 chaperone also controls smaller and more likely adaptive changes in natural quantitative traits has been unclear. To determine the effect of Hsp90 on quantitative trait variability we deconstructed genetic, stochastic and environmental components of variation in Drosophila wing and bristle traits of genetically matched flies, differing only by Hsp90 loss-of-function or wild-type alleles. Unexpectedly, Hsp90 buffering was remarkably specific to certain normally invariant and highly discrete quantitative traits. Like the qualitative trait phenotypes controlled by Hsp90, highly discrete quantitative traits such as scutellor and thoracic bristle number are threshold traits. When tested across genotypes sampled from a wild population or in laboratory strains, the sensitivity of these traits to many types of variation was coordinately controlled, while continuously variable bristle types and wing size, and critically invariant left-right wing asymmetry, remained relatively unaffected. Although increased environmental variation and developmental noise would impede many types of selection response, in replicate populations in which Hsp90 was specifically impaired, heritability and ‘extrinsic evolvability’, the expected response to selection, were also markedly increased. However, despite the overall buffering effect of Hsp90 on variation in populations, for any particular individual or genotype in which Hsp90 was impaired, the size and direction of its effects were unpredictable. The trait and genetic-background dependence of Hsp90 effects and its remarkable bias toward invariant or canalized traits support the idea that traits evolve independent and trait-specific mechanisms of canalization and evolvability through their evolution of non-linearity and thresholds. Highly non-linear responses would buffer variation in Hsp90-dependent signaling over a wide range, while over a narrow range of signaling near trait thresholds become more variable with increasing probability of triggering all-or-none developmental responses

Pep1, a Secreted Effector Protein of Ustilago maydis, Is Required for Successful Invasion of Plant Cells

The basidiomycete Ustilago maydis causes smut disease in maize. Colonization of the host plant is initiated by direct penetration of cuticle and cell wall of maize epidermis cells. The invading hyphae are surrounded by the plant plasma membrane and proliferate within the plant tissue. We identified a novel secreted protein, termed Pep1, that is essential for penetration. Disruption mutants of pep1 are not affected in saprophytic growth and develop normal infection structures. However, Δpep1 mutants arrest during penetration of the epidermal cell and elicit a strong plant defense response. Using Affymetrix maize arrays, we identified 116 plant genes which are differentially regulated in Δpep1 compared to wild type infections. Most of these genes are related to plant defense. By in vivo immunolocalization, live-cell imaging and plasmolysis approaches, we detected Pep1 in the apoplastic space as well as its accumulation at sites of cell-to-cell passages. Site-directed mutagenesis identified two of the four cysteine residues in Pep1 as essential for function, suggesting that the formation of disulfide bridges is crucial for proper protein folding. The barley covered smut fungus Ustilago hordei contains an ortholog of pep1 which is needed for penetration of barley and which is able to complement the U. maydis Δpep1 mutant. Based on these results, we conclude that Pep1 has a conserved function essential for establishing compatibility that is not restricted to the U. maydis / maize interaction

The Genome of Ganderma lucidum Provide Insights into Triterpense Biosynthesis and Wood Degradation

BACKGROUND: Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi or Ling Zhi) is one of the most famous Traditional Chinese Medicines and has been widely used in the treatment of various human diseases in Asia countries. It is also a fungus with strong wood degradation ability with potential in bioenergy production. However, genes, pathways and mechanisms of these functions are still unknown. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The genome of G. lucidum was sequenced and assembled into a 39.9 megabases (Mb) draft genome, which encoded 12,080 protein-coding genes and ∼83% of them were similar to public sequences. We performed comprehensive annotation for G. lucidum genes and made comparisons with genes in other fungi genomes. Genes in the biosynthesis of the main G. lucidum active ingredients, ganoderic acids (GAs), were characterized. Among the GAs synthases, we identified a fusion gene, the N and C terminal of which are homologous to two different enzymes. Moreover, the fusion gene was only found in basidiomycetes. As a white rot fungus with wood degradation ability, abundant carbohydrate-active enzymes and ligninolytic enzymes were identified in the G. lucidum genome and were compared with other fungi. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The genome sequence and well annotation of G. lucidum will provide new insights in function analyses including its medicinal mechanism. The characterization of genes in the triterpene biosynthesis and wood degradation will facilitate bio-engineering research in the production of its active ingredients and bioenergy

Septation of Infectious Hyphae Is Critical for Appressoria Formation and Virulence in the Smut Fungus Ustilago Maydis

Differentiation of hyphae into specialized infection structures, known as appressoria, is a common feature of plant pathogenic fungi that penetrate the plant cuticle. Appressorium formation in U. maydis is triggered by environmental signals but the molecular mechanism of this hyphal differentiation is largely unknown. Infectious hyphae grow on the leaf surface by inserting regularly spaced retraction septa at the distal end of the tip cell leaving empty sections of collapsed hyphae behind. Here we show that formation of retraction septa is critical for appressorium formation and virulence in U. maydis. We demonstrate that the diaphanous-related formin Drf1 is necessary for actomyosin ring formation during septation of infectious hyphae. Drf1 acts as an effector of a Cdc42 GTPase signaling module, which also consists of the Cdc42-specific guanine nucleotide exchange factor Don1 and the Ste20-like kinase Don3. Deletion of drf1, don1 or don3 abolished formation of retraction septa resulting in reduced virulence. Appressorium formation in these mutants was not completely blocked but infection structures were found only at the tip of short filaments indicating that retraction septa are necessary for appressorium formation in extended infectious hyphae. In addition, appressoria of drf1 mutants penetrated the plant tissue less frequently

The General Transcriptional Repressor Tup1 Is Required for Dimorphism and Virulence in a Fungal Plant Pathogen

A critical step in the life cycle of many fungal pathogens is the transition between yeast-like growth and the formation of filamentous structures, a process known as dimorphism. This morphological shift, typically triggered by multiple environmental signals, is tightly controlled by complex genetic pathways to ensure successful pathogenic development. In animal pathogenic fungi, one of the best known regulators of dimorphism is the general transcriptional repressor, Tup1. However, the role of Tup1 in fungal dimorphism is completely unknown in plant pathogens. Here we show that Tup1 plays a key role in orchestrating the yeast to hypha transition in the maize pathogen Ustilago maydis. Deletion of the tup1 gene causes a drastic reduction in the mating and filamentation capacity of the fungus, in turn leading to a reduced virulence phenotype. In U. maydis, these processes are controlled by the a and b mating-type loci, whose expression depends on the Prf1 transcription factor. Interestingly, Δtup1 strains show a critical reduction in the expression of prf1 and that of Prf1 target genes at both loci. Moreover, we observed that Tup1 appears to regulate Prf1 activity by controlling the expression of the prf1 transcriptional activators, rop1 and hap2. Additionally, we describe a putative novel prf1 repressor, named Pac2, which seems to be an important target of Tup1 in the control of dimorphism and virulence. Furthermore, we show that Tup1 is required for full pathogenic development since tup1 deletion mutants are unable to complete the sexual cycle. Our findings establish Tup1 as a key factor coordinating dimorphism in the phytopathogen U. maydis and support a conserved role for Tup1 in the control of hypha-specific genes among animal and plant fungal pathogens

Quand la publicité enlève le bas…

Il est des publicités qui font date et dont on se souvient : le spot de Perrier (1976) évoquant l’éjaculation, ou la campagne de l’afficheur Avenir dans laquelle Myriam « enlevait le bas » en 4x3 dans les villes de France (1981) sont de celles-là. Le striptease publicitaire ne s’est pas arrêté là et aujourd’hui tout y passe : parfums, vêtements, électroménager, produits d’entretiens, alimentation, tous participent au Kâma-Sûtra médiatique, chacun choisissant son degré de sexe. Pourtant, malgr..

Porno-chic & médias-choc

CC martin.rondeau Le titre évocateur de cette Thèse de Sciences de l'information et de la communication ne fait pas seulement référence à la vague publicitaire apparue en France au début des années 2000 chez de nombreuses marques de luxe. Il renvoie au concept plus large de sexualisation de la culture développé par B. McNair traduisant une multiplication et une intensification des connotations sexuelles dans les médias et notamment dans les campagnes publicitaires. Sexe explicite ou suggéré, ..