(no subject)
Feb. 26th, 2007 07:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beachlassI don't know whether to laugh, or bang my head against the wall.
"Thanks largely to the feminist and gay and lesbian movements, few of us can now hold to rigid notions of gender. We have not only been challenged to stretch the boundaries of traditional gender roles, but many of us have discovered new, often unexpected possibilities. For example, many women report the delight of learning how to bring themselves to orgasm, thus shattering the myth of the frigid, nonorgasmic female dependent on the male for sexual climax..." Marvin Ellison
I mean, I know, and the whole 70's thing with circles and mirror and speculum... and the doctors who used to 'manipulate' 'hysterical' women to 'paroxysm' for relief... but are we really so hopeless that we couldn't figure out how to get ourselves off? Is it really a "new and unexpected possibility"?
But... how much fanfic does this remind you of: "patriarchal sex depends on a dynamic of conquest and surrender, of winning control over or of being placed under someone else's control. Opposites attract. Inequality is sexy.
Kakashi, Colonel Mustang.... I'm looking at you.
"Thanks largely to the feminist and gay and lesbian movements, few of us can now hold to rigid notions of gender. We have not only been challenged to stretch the boundaries of traditional gender roles, but many of us have discovered new, often unexpected possibilities. For example, many women report the delight of learning how to bring themselves to orgasm, thus shattering the myth of the frigid, nonorgasmic female dependent on the male for sexual climax..." Marvin Ellison
I mean, I know, and the whole 70's thing with circles and mirror and speculum... and the doctors who used to 'manipulate' 'hysterical' women to 'paroxysm' for relief... but are we really so hopeless that we couldn't figure out how to get ourselves off? Is it really a "new and unexpected possibility"?
But... how much fanfic does this remind you of: "patriarchal sex depends on a dynamic of conquest and surrender, of winning control over or of being placed under someone else's control. Opposites attract. Inequality is sexy.
Kakashi, Colonel Mustang.... I'm looking at you.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-27 04:11 am (UTC)I actually laughed out loud and startled the girl when I read this part of the article. Oh, yeah... now that we've let go of gender??? You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.
I'm already quoting you on the "it wasn't sex, 'cause I didn't stick my dick in" penetrative thing... but I might steal this post too... nothing like cobbling your paper together from your friends' conversations. I mean, affirming the authority of a diversity of experiences.
Yes, I think it's a good distinction between what women are doing beneath the blankets and what women are talking about... or what men are writing about women.
And.. yes, a difference between bdsm and patriarchal sex... but the quote made me think of all the teacher/student stories. Kakashi/Sakura or Kakashi/Sasuke... where the power differential is an unchallenged part of the sexual thrill. Especially when they are written as adult/teen, experienced/inexperienced, top/bottom... I think that old and crappy cultural scripts are being played out.
no subject
Date: 2007-02-27 04:26 am (UTC)Quote away - after all, I get direct benefits from you writing your papers!
I guess the difference between unpracticed fantasy bdsm and more experienced bdsm is just how much negotiation and intentionality there is within sex/power roles that are enacted within the actual bdsm community. Which is a huge difference from real life situations in which differences in power are NOT negotiated, and, as much as they are re-imaged into fantasy *pleasure*, there is a very real abuse of position that makes me sad and uncomfortable.
Remember way back when I took my first Philosophy of Feminism course (it was probably the first year I knew you) -- it was taught by a man who was so uncomfortable teaching it that he just taught of about shitty things that men in politics had said about feminists - and then he felt so guilty about that, that we all got 90's in the course... (I got 99%, since I was
more intimidatingsmarter than the others