Sexuality abhored

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I wouldn't say all feminists are against pornography or all see it as exploitive. There seem to be 3 camps of thought: You have the right to make a choice, it hurts women, or helps women. "Liberal" feminism, anti-porn feminism, and pro-porn feminism. I didn't intend to lump pornography and sex into the same category, rather I made a bad attempt at discussing pornography while on the topic of sexuality and feminism. I am going to edit that paragraph so that I am more clear (take out the pornography/sex, replace it with just "pornography" I was just thinking that generally speaking, people have sexual relations in pornography, hence the connection). Sorry for any confusion.

RE: reification of humans into sexual objects.
Taken literally, "sexual objects" means next to nothing, since objects themselves to not possess a sexuality. But I've always found it a little strange that it is perfectly acceptable to portray woman as a few (generally deemed positive) qualities, such as being smart or funny, but to portray a woman as sexual at the cost of not mentioning her other qualities is not ok. As in, it is perfectly acceptable to portray a woman as "smart" or "funny" at the cost of not mentioning her other qualities. But to display a woman as a sexual person at the cost of not mentioning her other qualities is problematic. Why is it degrading to focus on her body - her sex - if this is what she chooses to broadcast to the world? Is there something inherently "bad" about her body or sex act that makes it unacceptable to display?
edit: spelling

Last edited by goomba on 10 Feb 2007, 12:52 am, edited 1 time in total.

Do you know how to beat up a liberal? Tell him your jewish and if he swings back, he's anti-semetic lol

Know how you beat up a conservative? Ask him how jesus would feel about voilence, er wait, apparently they think jesus endorses violence.

This was a major problem at my high school. It was a very conservative Christian private school with great academics but horrible social policies. For instance, it was against school rules to date. It was virtually impossible to enforce but you couldn't have any public displays of affection during school or at any school events. Except for Theater and Language classes, guys and girls were not in the same classes. Prom was severally chaperoned. The teachers wrote down when you left for the after party and if it took you more than 30 minutes to get there, you were in trouble.

There was no sex-ed at my school, not even telling us to be abstinent, the school refused to acknowledge that sex existed. Two girls in my class got pregnant and were quietly asked to leave the school (the administration denied that they were kicked out probably for liability reasons). If there were any gays or lesbians at my school, they wisely stayed deep in the closet.

This bothered me no end throughout high school and I fought against it as best I could. High school is supposed to be a more or less safe place to get out on dates and learn how to interact with members of the opposite sex. You just need to get out and get the experience. Because of AS I was awkward enough as it was and I couldn't get into the underground dating scene. So here I am in college in my 3rd year and I haven't had a single date let alone a relationship. Goodness knows I have tried to pick up on all the little social customs and games people play, but I am even more woefully behind than I would have been if I was an aspie graduate of a normal high school. I thought about changing schools but I have never really like that kind of change. It frustrates me that fundamentalist attitudes towards sex has put me at an even greater disadvantage than I already had. As I said, I still try but I fail over and over and over.

........"us vs. them?, you're the one that's painting everything black and white. Show me one piece of "radical feminist" writing that "abhors sexuality"......

...It's like me saying "fear the radical left wingers", what the hell is leftism? Feminism is just as broad...maybe you could post a link to a feminist you hate, and explain why...but this is just as useless as having a "conservatives suck" debate...

...the problem isn't that you're not politically correct, it's that your argument is pointless and uninformed.

....I guess some feminists think that women sell themselves as sexual objects because other career oportunities aren't open to them. Personally, I don't know where I stand on that.