Sonia Johnson

[fierceawakening]

Is this really for real?

It's like the worst horrid caricature of the Second Wave came pulsing to unholy life.

Has anyone heard of this person? Is this Wikipedia entry accurate?

In Going Out of Our Minds Johnson details the personal and political experiences that turned her against the state. In the book she rejects the Equal Rights Amendment, the

Comments

[roykay]

I certainly remember the Mormmon conflict.

I din't know she became so anti-sexual, though. I suppose when you overthink things, you find transgressions in every breath, let alone every relationship and every fuck.

I suppose sex, particularly orgasmic ses, COULD be seen as patriarchal - on the theory that orgasm and ejaculation are male-centric association and thus by "fetishizing" orgasm we are reverting to a male model. (I don't know what a female model is supposed to look like.)

The politics could also be psycho-physiological and I sometimes wonder if some asexual women gravitate to anti-sexual politics as a way of "fighting back" at responses they are culturally supposed to want, but will never have. In this time, that can get away with being called "feminism". In other ages more likely some religious framework.

[fierceawakening]

Personally, I think it's... well, hrm. I think that it's got more to do with the whole way a lot of "radical" thought encourages "examination." The kind of "examination" that gets encouraged, though, is an ever-finer combing through daily life looking for patriarchy. Which is basically looking for pollution. Problems. Bad things.

And if you're doing that from go, you're going to find them. And find more and more things to be worried about and scared of.

It honestly reads to me like this is someone who had some problems in a het relationship, dwelled on them because "politics" encouraged it, figured from that that heterosexuality was unsalvageable, tried women, found some of the same problems (because humans are humans and no relationship is entirely free of bullshit, even an awesome one), and then decided this had proven that all relationships are toxic.

If your bar is "I must be perfectly safe at all times no matter what," well, you eventually DO wind up alone in your room huddled in a corner. That's what this looks like to me,

[roykay]

If your bar is "I must be perfectly safe at all times no matter what," well, you eventually DO wind up alone in your room huddled in a corner. That's what this looks like to me, honestly.

Spot on. And I've found out from battling my anxiety disorder that even the corner isn't safe in the end, because when you're alone with no outside input your internal demons will go to town.

[fierceawakening]

Exactly, anony.

I was a radical feminist for a short while, and this is exactly what happened to me. I critiqued everything anyone around me said and did for faint whiffs of patriarchy, I "called people out" every minute because I thought it would make the world a better place, etc.

I ended up interpreting things that were intended totally differently as malicious woman-hating, and I alienated everyone I cared about. I became a total asshole. I'm still ashamed of many of the things I said to people I love back then. I kind of wish I could do that year over.

[fierceawakening]

Yeah, I'd say that analysis is spot-on.

[fierceawakening]

http://trinityva.livejournal.com/979223.html?thread=5971479#t5971479

[fierceawakening]

And as for More Information:

http://www.exmormon.org/mormon/mormon415.htm

an essay of hers critiquing Mormonism as patriarchal.

Still looking for her critiques of sex.

[pyrategrrl]

*rolls eyes*

sounds like the usual sort of :"I don't like it/am frustrated by it, therefore it is *universally* wrong and bad." kind of argument.

I see this a lot in the links you post to the more annoying "feminist" sites.

"My personal tastes are universal truth for everyone!", followed by a great deal of painfully stretched rationalization.

[natalia_lush]

Gross. Well, the Roe v. Wade thing actually crops up in Janice Raymond too. I don't have my books with me, so my interpretation may be faulty, but didn't Raymond basically say that Roe v. Wade ONLY exists as a way to absolve men of responsibility after impregnating a woman? This basically assumes that no sane woman would ever want to have sex with a man.

Well, I had a fabulous morning in bed today. Guess I'm as insane as the rest of 'em.

But this Sonia Johnson character is even worse, apparently.

[fierceawakening]

Well, the Roe v. Wade thing actually crops up in Janice Raymond too. I don't have my books with me, so my interpretation may be faulty, but didn't Raymond basically say that Roe v. Wade ONLY exists as a way to absolve men of responsibility after impregnating a woman?

I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised. I think Greer (was it Greer? I may be thinking of Raymond too) and -- Mackinnon? I'd have to look it up -- ultimately said something like "hey, the men of the sexual revolution are pro-choice because it means that women can be available to them any time. If there's a consequence to men's actions, they can just tell a woman to get rid of it."

[impgrrl]

That *sounds* like Greer and McKinnon, but I don't have enough knowledge to verify :)

I worked at a Feminist Vegetarian Restaurant/Bookstore a long time ago - and these women were WAY into Greer and McKinnon etc. Wow.

And me at the start of my public kink journey, LOL.

[sweetconcord]

My mind used to be boggled by trying to understand that kind of thinking, for a variety of reasons, but now I've given up and just file it under "CRAZY" in my head-box.

[fierceawakening]

It's less that I want to understand it, and more that I want to document it. A lot of the people in these discussions want to deny that this sort of crazy is associated with them.

So you get this whole "None of us said anything that is ANTI-SEX. You're making it up."

I find it handy to have documentation that no, we're not.