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Well, I had my office hour today.
I was entertained (sort of) by a couple of Women's Studies Grads who were preparing for their seminar (the one that starts at 5pm, when my office hour is over).
They were kind of spazzing. It was amusing. ;-)
But.
The resource room where I hold my office hour happens to have a copy of Naomi Wolfe's (sp) Promiscuities, which Ami_B just told me to take a look at. :-)
So. I started reading it.
On page xviii of the introduction I was struck by the impressed, yet rather miserable, feeling that: How can I possibly write anything when she's already said it all so well.
This was on the subject of Women and Sex, and the post-sexual-revolution landscape of desire (or-whatever-you-want-to-call-it), and how women who were entering adolescence *during* (or after) the sexual revolution have a different set of becoming-women experiences than do women who grew up and became adults *before* the sexual revolution (and, thus, were able to actively take part in it when it finally turned up).
She points out that the sexual needs and desires (and fears, I would add) of a frustrated virgin who really, *really* wants to do more than just 'heavy petting' are going to be different from the sexual needs and desires (and fears) of a frustrated "ambivalent slut" -- a young woman who is getting conflicting messages sent at her about how she should (according to Cosmo, billboard ads, Le Chateau, hollywood, etc.) be sexual, and yet should also *not* be sexual (according to school, parents, hollywood, stupid-boyfriends who don't get that "being sexual" means wanting *our* sexual desires fulfilled, *not* existing solely to sexually gratify them...)...
And so, she continues: The frustrated virgin who rejoiced in the Pill and Free Love, and then proceeded to hand them to her daughters...
What was have is this: The technology of 'guilt-free' pleasure, without the actual lack of guilt. She talks about women who fear having their 'pasts' (I worked as a waitress at a Playboy club for a week, twenty years ago... what if someone finds out? I like tying my boyfriends up... what if someone finds out? I had a three-way in college... What if someone finds out?)
As a society, we don't value (or trust) female sexuality. We commodify it, we turn it into a thing with-which to sell other things. We plaster images of liquid-eyed 19-year-olds all over the place, as if to tell the little girls who look up to the 19-year-olds: "This is what you have to be".
And what you have to be is: Desired.
What you have to be is: Observed.
What you have to be is: Waiting for someone to come and choose you (because of your shampoo, or your jeans, or what-ever the billboard is advertising).
Ariel Levi talks about the same sort of stuff in Female Chauvenist Pigs.
It's a very interesting, and at the same time, a very upsetting... revelation.
Anyway. I'm tapped out for the moment. :-)
- TTFN,
- Amazon.
I was entertained (sort of) by a couple of Women's Studies Grads who were preparing for their seminar (the one that starts at 5pm, when my office hour is over).
They were kind of spazzing. It was amusing. ;-)
But.
The resource room where I hold my office hour happens to have a copy of Naomi Wolfe's (sp) Promiscuities, which Ami_B just told me to take a look at. :-)
So. I started reading it.
On page xviii of the introduction I was struck by the impressed, yet rather miserable, feeling that: How can I possibly write anything when she's already said it all so well.
This was on the subject of Women and Sex, and the post-sexual-revolution landscape of desire (or-whatever-you-want-to-call-it), and how women who were entering adolescence *during* (or after) the sexual revolution have a different set of becoming-women experiences than do women who grew up and became adults *before* the sexual revolution (and, thus, were able to actively take part in it when it finally turned up).
She points out that the sexual needs and desires (and fears, I would add) of a frustrated virgin who really, *really* wants to do more than just 'heavy petting' are going to be different from the sexual needs and desires (and fears) of a frustrated "ambivalent slut" -- a young woman who is getting conflicting messages sent at her about how she should (according to Cosmo, billboard ads, Le Chateau, hollywood, etc.) be sexual, and yet should also *not* be sexual (according to school, parents, hollywood, stupid-boyfriends who don't get that "being sexual" means wanting *our* sexual desires fulfilled, *not* existing solely to sexually gratify them...)...
And so, she continues: The frustrated virgin who rejoiced in the Pill and Free Love, and then proceeded to hand them to her daughters...
What was have is this: The technology of 'guilt-free' pleasure, without the actual lack of guilt. She talks about women who fear having their 'pasts' (I worked as a waitress at a Playboy club for a week, twenty years ago... what if someone finds out? I like tying my boyfriends up... what if someone finds out? I had a three-way in college... What if someone finds out?)
As a society, we don't value (or trust) female sexuality. We commodify it, we turn it into a thing with-which to sell other things. We plaster images of liquid-eyed 19-year-olds all over the place, as if to tell the little girls who look up to the 19-year-olds: "This is what you have to be".
And what you have to be is: Desired.
What you have to be is: Observed.
What you have to be is: Waiting for someone to come and choose you (because of your shampoo, or your jeans, or what-ever the billboard is advertising).
Ariel Levi talks about the same sort of stuff in Female Chauvenist Pigs.
It's a very interesting, and at the same time, a very upsetting... revelation.
Anyway. I'm tapped out for the moment. :-)
- TTFN,
- Amazon.
