Male-centric Sex Culture

    For today I chose to read the second of the two readings, which was the chapter entitled "Femme-inism", in addition to "An Immodest Proposal". I enjoyed both of them, but I'd like to discuss "An Immodest Proposal" first.

    I completely agree! I just spent four years in high school. While the views of sex on Colgate campus are a bit (read: a bit) more realistic, I still have those four confusing years fresh on the brain. The scenario described in the chapter fits exactly what a "perfect relationship" would have been like in high school. The control of the sexual nature of the relationship always fell into the arms of the man, so the ideal situation was for the man to progress towards sexual activity in a very slow, consensual manner. Questions about the nature of the relationship were always phrased as, "Did he kiss you yet?", or "Where did he take you for dinner?" The first of these two statements reinforces the idea from the reading that men are seen as constantly having to restrain themselves from sex in a relationship while women are just seen as being indifferent. The second one of many examples of ways in which men are seen as more powerful in a relationship in high school (Most of this applies to adulthood as well, it just applies especially well to young adults and high schoolers). 

    Digressing back to the reading, I fully agree with Corinna's suggestions regarding the necessity to change the way sex is perceived by our society. As she notes, it must be changed from something that men teach to women to something that men and women share with each other. I honestly used to always wonder why girls that I knew weren't more vocal about sexual desire. I already understood the fact that almost everybody has sexual desires regardless of gender, so I was confused as to why women tried to hide it. However, it's clear that most of the hiding is not voluntary. Cues all around women tell them that it is right to suppress their sexuality, because to make moves that are traditionally made by men is to subject oneself to being "weird" and "doing it wrong". This shows how the existence of these oppressive systems plays a part in their perpetuation, creating a very vicious cycle. 

    As for the chapter from Colonize This!, I think it showed a perspective that I had never seen before. I hadn't really thought through the possibility of an upstanding mother simultaneously being a sex worker, all the while raising her kids with the mentality that they could be their own women and avoid that line of work. This highlights one way to work through oppressive systems, which is to condition the next generation to escape them; the children's mother did buy into the oppressive system by her work, but found solace in that by both seeing it as a power over men and by educating her kids to better keep them from entering the system as they aged. Regardless of how the mother fit into the system, I'm glad that I got to see this perspective, as it humanized sex workers for me and caused me to find a new brand of respect for them.