One Perfect Sentence
The idea that women’s public sexuality can so precisely mirror traditional male fantasy while simultaneously existing in a kind of pro-woman, I-do-it-for-myself alternate universe is the cornerstone of funfeminist “thought.”
9 Responses to “One Perfect Sentence”
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ginmar says:
Yeah, pretty much. There’s also the idea that funfeminists are, well, fun, while reinforcing the idea implicitly that the radfems are sexually repressed.
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:29 am EST -
Violet says:
The comment thread at Twisty’s is deeply depressing. Like this from Belle O’Cosity:
I gave up on the fun feminists five years ago when I lived in Portland Oregon. Portland is supposed to be this ultra progressive cool town. Yeah, well not so much. When I lived there every feminist event was held at a frickin’ strip club and if a person complained that maybe that was not the most appropriate place a firm shut the fuck up was issued. The thing about Portland is there is zoning there that says you can have a porn shop or strip place every so many blocks, and so they did. Almost every pub had a little stage in the corner with a naked lady. I couldn’t believe it when I first moved there. Go to the corner local for a beer and a game of pool and there would be a stripper. They normalized it in such a way that no one seemed to question it at all. It made me sick; I moved after a year.
I feel like we’ve lost a whole generation. We need to just call the Third Wave a loss and move on, start working on the next generation. Time to cut bait.
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Laurelin says:
Even though technically I’m from this generation, I feel the same way :(
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phio gistic says:
I wonder how much difference it makes, really, when the pro-pornstitution crowd insists on claiming their love for being prostituted and calling themselves feminist. They could call themselves fireplugs, but it would not make it so.
Do men really hold them up as proof that all women want to be prostituted? Don’t men believe that whether the pro-porners are out there proclaiming their “agency” and “power” or not? Even the pro-porn bloggers that are paid mouthpieces for the pornstitution industry, do they make much of a difference? Doesn’t that industry do whatever it wants to women already? Does a handful of privileged, vocal, visible, prostitutes really draw more johns, encourage women to take up the business or make the johns feel better about themselves? I suspect the users of porn and prostitutes would be doing it whether these bloggers existed or not. I doubt that many women would be fooled into being recruited. And I don’t think anyone really believes that the pro-porners are feminists. -
Violet says:
I’m not concerned about a few bloggers. I’m dismayed by the generational lack of feminist consciousness, the devaluing of the very meaning of the word “feminism.” I saw a lot of the same reports at Twisty’s forum, which was frequented by young women telling horror stories out of college. It’s just depressing as hell. These people are swimming in a world of pornification and they’ve been brainwashed into believing it’s “empowering” and that old school feminists — which is to say, real feminists — are prudish clueless old bags.
The irony is that the social scene nowadays has reverted to what it was in the 1960s, the pre-feminist world before the 70s. Go-go girls and miniskirts and strippers and naked chicks, broads and chicks and dames, pinups everywhere — women as the sex class writ large. Now it’s like that again only more so; same bag of shit except women are told it’s “empowering.” And they believe it, because they’ve also been told not to trust those crazy old feminists.
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phio gistic says:
I agree, things are bad and getting worse. I think the pro-porn bloggers are a symptom of what you describe, the brainwashing and pornstitution as big (”empowering”) business. It’s much more convenient to exploit people if they aren’t struggling against it! Feminists are like a candle in a hurricane, compared to that well-funded juggernaut.
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Level Best says:
You’re exactly right, Violet; in so many places and in so many ways life is going on in a sleazy, sexist way as if the second wave had never happened. And I think it really muddies the ideological waters when a big-traffic self-reportedly feminist blog like Feministe has a guest blogger supplying links to all sorts of “feminist porn” where, among other things, one may play with the “incest taboo.” Those of us who were incested may well feel offended to the bone by this, as well as disheartened. I feel very alienated by what is going on these days; you’re not the only one who elects to be a recluse. Anyway, THANKS, Ghost of Violet.
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ginmar says:
Well, who would you want to fight? Powerful men or women who are despised by everybody? They get to be the fun feminists and they get to stifle all those uncomfortable thoughts about liberation and mens’ fantasies, and society and stuff like that.
Nobody likes feminists. By going after feminists constantly, the funfeminists are doing mens’ work for them. It’s the ultimate in appeasement.
And it’s not like they have to be honest, or anything. The lies they tell are what the patriarchy wants to hear. “Feminists hate sex! Feminists hate prostitutes!” Etc., etc., They get to be victims that way, too.
In fact, it’s a very sensible position to take. It’s easy, it’s rewarding, it goes with the flow, it offers everything to the person willing to twist themselves into knots to make conforming into the status quo.
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phio gistic says:
Another bit of perfection from Twisty:
“[...] the heartbreakingly counterproductive tendency of the persecuted to seek fully human status by emulating the ideologies of their oppressors [...]“
