(no subject)

[beachlass]

I 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.

Comments

[eshala.livejournal.com]

I think that the lesbian/queer female community has done very different work around gender identification in the past ten years than the gay/queer male community has. With the rise of transgendered communities, along with the changing (broadening) roles women have held within mainstream society, and the changing nature of sexual discourse, the labels within the queer (women's) community have changed pretty radically. The confluence of queer, trans, polyamourous and bdsm communities, when further combined with a penchant for processing has created a situation in which it feels like the butch/femme dichotomy has been pushed over into a corner.
Sometimes I miss it like the guilty pleasure that comes from dressing up in ueber-femme clothing...

I think that the latent socio-normative roles for men have not yet undergone an equal amount of change.

Yikes. My brain seems to be stuck on theory mode.

The scripts for manly-ness have not been stomped on as much as the scripts for womanly-ness. And so, in order for yaoi to be 'okay' people regress to socially defined gendered roles.

Stupid society.