Friday, January 25, 2008

Sex Postive Feminism - Carla Bertoldi (WS 200)

Sex - Postive Feminism is a type of feminism that had its rise during the sexual revolution of the 1970's but was not fully developed and studies until the 1980's. Defined it is, "feminism that deals with the belief that sexual freedom leads to women’s freedom and women should be the sole decision maker when it comes to intimate acts and everything that comes along with them" (wikipedia.com).
The start of the pro sex feminist movement started with the stance legislation was taking on pornography being sexual discrimination against women. Although some pornography can be degrading in nature it is not sexual discrimination to a consenting woman participant (viewer and actress), instead by taking pornography away it would be more of a violation of a woman's freedom of speech.
The core concepts of Sex - Postive feminism include, Sex as a form of paid work, which supports the making prositution legal. There is also a beleif that what is considered to be 'hate sex' actually may be a type of fantasy for women and should not be judged or critizied. It also emphasizes the importance of accepting all sexual orientations, homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, transsexual, or whatever a person chooses to be. It supports sexual education and giving women the complete and total right to choose with whom, how, when, and where they want to be sexually active.
Pro sex feminism Carole Vance states that, "We must draw on women's energy to create a movement that speaks as powerfully in favor of sexual pleasure as it does against sexual danger" (Vance). She goes on to say, "Feminism must insist that women are sexual subjects... and increase women's pleasure and joy, not jsut decrease our misery" (Vance). Pro -sex feminism is about being able to have the sexual freedom that men have without people passing negative judgement.
Feminists such as Ariel Levy, agrue that pro-sex feminism leads to the objectification on women and sexual activites may actually be disempowering for women (wikipedia).
I agree that pornography and prostitution should be legal as long as consent is there. However since so many people are concerned with rape and violence both of these acts are under severe public scrutiny and due to our societial norms are unfortunately looked negatively upon. I think if a woman wants to have sex and get paid for it, that is fine. I do not think married men or women should partake in acts like this but single consenting adults that may not want to try to flirt with a man or women and have to spend money on a date and purely just want sex for the sake of pleasure, should be able to pay for it. We pay for other vices such as alcohol and entertainment. However, I would never pay or be paid for sex because of my religious beliefs, not everyone has the same beliefs that I do, so if they want to feel some pleasure and make/spend money to do it, be my guest. Let the sexual revolution continue!

For more information on Pro Sex Feminism please refer to the following resources:

Feminism for Sale: Case Study of Pro -Sex Feminist Business by Meika Loe
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0891-2432%28199912%2913%3A6%3C705%3AFFSCSO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-N

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex-positive_feminism

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