Twisty Faster nails some hard truths about Sex-Positive Feminism. She also linked to a blog called Pervocracy where the young woman writes posts detailing her sexual pleasures, which don’t sound too pleasurable to me.
Between the two of them you should get a good idea about what the rift might be between two women who both are basically feminists with different ways of dealing with our hypersexualized world.
Age makes a huge and terrible difference in how you see oppression.
Lars L. | 28-Mar-08 at 3:43 am | Permalink
Read both posts now and… woah… I’d not call most of the experiences the blogger in the Pervocracy has for pleasureable, quite the opposite in fact.
Then again, people do have different sexual norms and they need not be cultural or a reflection of our society, a friend of mine is into soft bdsm for example while her sister is a “normal” girl with a “normal” sexuality insofar that sexuality ever can be considered normal. I don’t understand my friends sexual orientation and never will, but if I went into judge with my norms, would I not simply be trying to dominate another beings sexual views, and would I not in such a way be just another perpetrator in keeping society as a patriocracy?
I believe what Twisty may be missing here is that sexual desire need not be political or be made political, then again, the Pervocracy may be taking that a step too far to put it mildly.
Stell | 24-Jul-08 at 1:16 pm | Permalink
I appreciate your site. Somehow found my way here from the rightly-venerated Twisty.
But I disagree with this (unless I am reading you wrong):
“Age makes a huge and terrible difference in how you see oppression.”
I’m a 29 year old feminist, and I pretty much always agree with Twisty and find so-called “sex-positive” feminists often act as apologists for the patriarchy, and seem to value the payoff they get from acting in conformance with it as more important than feminism. Just because one enjoys the payoff she gets from participating in and/or supporting exploitative, migosynist culture (e.g. through the choice to be a stripper), that in no way negates the negative ramifications such actions have for all women.
As a heterosexual, Twisty’s philosophy doesn’t always address my own personal sexuality, but why should it? Heterosexuality is necessarily fraught with minefields, most of all for the radical feminist. But, I for one, will continue to try to recognize and reduce the complicity with patriarchy in my own actions. Perhaps it is no coincidence, however, that my desire and ability to do this coincide with my declining value as a commodity in misogynist culture?
Fred | 24-Jul-08 at 2:16 pm | Permalink
I’m glad you disagree with me, and more power to you. I’m all for women getting to the truth of male supremacy at any age. I guess what I meant was that some women take a little more time to get to it. It took me many years.