Saturday 6 January 2007

Does Rachiness Equal Feminism?

As if I am an expert on feminism! But now that I am exposed to more literary works (thanks Bec!) my perspectives have widened, at least.

It was an interesting book, Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy. Quite articulate, well written. with the argument that raunchiness is not liberating in the feminist movement sense of the word, and that there actually isn't any real power and freedom in having an asipiration to be a sex object. Interviews with teenage girls who are all into being the skankiest dressed, and having sex but not really knowing what was pleasurable for them was quite sad. I totally agree that abstinence as an educational tool seems a bit out of whack with what is going on in teenagers these days.

One part of the book that I did find very interesting was the part about lesbians that had assumed a dominant (or even the expected man-like) role in their relationships, previously known as "butch" but now also known as "bois". The fact that they were turned off with having relationships with other lesbians who were also butch or bois, referring to them as "faggots", was strange when I read it. Now that I think about a bit more, is it similar to me saying someone likes cutey women, but not really aggressive women?

Women have to know what they themselves want before they can push for it. Raunchiness turns men on, more so than women, and that's a big problem if women are espousing that as the answer. But who am I to complain? :)