Feminist Standards: The Politics of Desperation
There's something that abolitionist vegans largely agree on: if you're not for human rights as well - or if you are against them - you're not a vegan; humans are animals too.
Unfortunately, this is not the same way for feminism. Anyone with two braincells to rub together - and figure out that women are entitled to equal pay for equal work* and to actually be, you know, considered (at least under the law) like actual people - can call themselves a feminist.
And somehow, this is treated like a badge of honour, especially for men. "Oh, hurr hurr hurr, yep, I think of women as people!" (You wanna fuckin' cookie or somethin'?) Except it's more complicated than "equal pay for equal work". It is an undeniable truth to anyone with enough brainpower to count to three that women, despite "the great accomplishments of feminism", still aren't treated as if they own their own bodies.
Especially not by the sex poxes.
See, there's a trick here going on, a very subtle deception. They do two things to deflect the realisation that sex poxes do not really support womens' choices: first, they insist that any choice a woman makes is a feminist one and is absolutely unquestionable; second, they paint radfems as "anti-sex", purposefully obfuscating the fact that supporting a narrow form of sex - sex-as-power-imbalance - is truly anti-sex because it obscures egalitarian sex that does not hold Patriarchal tenets - that male is sexy, that male is power, and therefore that power is sexy.
On the surface, the "sex poz" people appear to support women's choices - but they regularly denigrate "vanilla" sex** and insist that if you don't engage in sex that has violence and power imbalances as its core "hot factor", there's something wrong with you - you're religious, repressed, or just plain anti-sex. They also do not support women's speech - regularly casting women who speak out about the pain that the sex industry has caused them as "anti-sex", "prudes", and much of the same that they cast anyone outside of their justification/wank-party. Sometimes - alright, much of the time - sex poxes go so far to make threats against the women speaking out about this pain, as we see in the case of BitingBeaver and Heart.
More to the point, the sex poxes work against women's real choices by supporting the choices (and only the choices) of the Patriarchy. The Patriarchy, through pornography, prostitution, and stripping, sets up a false dichotomy of choices: fun (and being forced to do things you don't want) and boring, repressed piety (and not being able to do anything). Through these things, the Patriarchy keeps inducting men into a culture of woman-hatred - teaching them to refuse to see women as people instead of body parts, to fetishise power imbalances and situations in which one partner is more vulnerable than the other, to value force and dominance and power struggle over equality and gentleness and receptivity.
By supporting the choices of the Patriarchy, sex pozzes stifle the choices of egalitarianism and feminism.
That's got to stop.
A long time ago, when feminists were desperate to get women rights - any rights at all - they teamed up with bigots so that they'd be able to have some political impact. They allowed anyone to use the term "feminist" as long as they supported a key issue. Somehow, throughout the ages, that got translated into the minds of the populace as the right to call yourself a feminist and have no one question it. This is still going on, and we have to stop it if we have any hope of progressing towards a more feminist, if not totally feminist, future - there are people calling themselves feminist who support the Patriarchal standard for women. And that just ain't right.
So next time someone tells you they're a "sex-positive feminist", tell them: "I'm sex-positive too. In fact, I'm so sex-positive that I'm anti-pornography/prostitution." Feminists cannot support every choice in the world; for example, rape is a choice too. If feminism is to survive, we have to take the term back - and away from the reactionary, regressive sex poxes.
*Though they rarely mean this, as evidenced by the extraordinary number of justifications for paying women less - having children and missing days at work so that they can take care of them (you know, being what rational people call decent parents - and speaking of which, why don't men give up a little of their privilege and stay home with a vomiting four-year-old? Oh right! Because that would be beneath the poor dears), etc.
**"Vanilla" being cast to mean PIV egalitarian sex, despite the fact that PIV sex is largely inegalitarian - but in reality it means "anything that doesn't have objectification and violence as a turn-on", therefore grouping PIV inegalitarian - and "boring and routine" - sex with actual feminist sex.
Unfortunately, this is not the same way for feminism. Anyone with two braincells to rub together - and figure out that women are entitled to equal pay for equal work* and to actually be, you know, considered (at least under the law) like actual people - can call themselves a feminist.
And somehow, this is treated like a badge of honour, especially for men. "Oh, hurr hurr hurr, yep, I think of women as people!" (You wanna fuckin' cookie or somethin'?) Except it's more complicated than "equal pay for equal work". It is an undeniable truth to anyone with enough brainpower to count to three that women, despite "the great accomplishments of feminism", still aren't treated as if they own their own bodies.
Especially not by the sex poxes.
See, there's a trick here going on, a very subtle deception. They do two things to deflect the realisation that sex poxes do not really support womens' choices: first, they insist that any choice a woman makes is a feminist one and is absolutely unquestionable; second, they paint radfems as "anti-sex", purposefully obfuscating the fact that supporting a narrow form of sex - sex-as-power-imbalance - is truly anti-sex because it obscures egalitarian sex that does not hold Patriarchal tenets - that male is sexy, that male is power, and therefore that power is sexy.
On the surface, the "sex poz" people appear to support women's choices - but they regularly denigrate "vanilla" sex** and insist that if you don't engage in sex that has violence and power imbalances as its core "hot factor", there's something wrong with you - you're religious, repressed, or just plain anti-sex. They also do not support women's speech - regularly casting women who speak out about the pain that the sex industry has caused them as "anti-sex", "prudes", and much of the same that they cast anyone outside of their justification/wank-party. Sometimes - alright, much of the time - sex poxes go so far to make threats against the women speaking out about this pain, as we see in the case of BitingBeaver and Heart.
More to the point, the sex poxes work against women's real choices by supporting the choices (and only the choices) of the Patriarchy. The Patriarchy, through pornography, prostitution, and stripping, sets up a false dichotomy of choices: fun (and being forced to do things you don't want) and boring, repressed piety (and not being able to do anything). Through these things, the Patriarchy keeps inducting men into a culture of woman-hatred - teaching them to refuse to see women as people instead of body parts, to fetishise power imbalances and situations in which one partner is more vulnerable than the other, to value force and dominance and power struggle over equality and gentleness and receptivity.
By supporting the choices of the Patriarchy, sex pozzes stifle the choices of egalitarianism and feminism.
That's got to stop.
A long time ago, when feminists were desperate to get women rights - any rights at all - they teamed up with bigots so that they'd be able to have some political impact. They allowed anyone to use the term "feminist" as long as they supported a key issue. Somehow, throughout the ages, that got translated into the minds of the populace as the right to call yourself a feminist and have no one question it. This is still going on, and we have to stop it if we have any hope of progressing towards a more feminist, if not totally feminist, future - there are people calling themselves feminist who support the Patriarchal standard for women. And that just ain't right.
So next time someone tells you they're a "sex-positive feminist", tell them: "I'm sex-positive too. In fact, I'm so sex-positive that I'm anti-pornography/prostitution." Feminists cannot support every choice in the world; for example, rape is a choice too. If feminism is to survive, we have to take the term back - and away from the reactionary, regressive sex poxes.
*Though they rarely mean this, as evidenced by the extraordinary number of justifications for paying women less - having children and missing days at work so that they can take care of them (you know, being what rational people call decent parents - and speaking of which, why don't men give up a little of their privilege and stay home with a vomiting four-year-old? Oh right! Because that would be beneath the poor dears), etc.
**"Vanilla" being cast to mean PIV egalitarian sex, despite the fact that PIV sex is largely inegalitarian - but in reality it means "anything that doesn't have objectification and violence as a turn-on", therefore grouping PIV inegalitarian - and "boring and routine" - sex with actual feminist sex.