textualdeviance (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
textualdeviance) wrote2010-08-08 06:44 pm
textualdeviance) wrote2010-08-08 06:44 pm
Random observation
(On a small feminist jag at the moment...)
I've been told before that I'm anti-feminist (and perhaps even sexist) because I reject commodified, caricatured ideals of femininity.*
Just realized that I've also gotten a very similar accusation from folks who think I'm anti-sex because I rect similar caricatures of sexuality.
It's kind of scary, IMHO, that these two artificial constructs are so pervasive that they've become assumed to be essential: That people have become so tied into these definitions of what it means to be a woman or to have enjoyable sex that they figure anything that doesn't conform to those constructs obviously can't be authentic.
It's sort of... Oh... The cultural equivalent of arguing that if you prefer what comes out of the tap to a bottle of Vitamin Water, you're anti-water. Just because that bottle has the word "water" on the label doesn't mean it's the end-all, be-all definition of water. And in fact, it's mostly anything but.**
*Nevermind that I also reject caricatures of masculinity.
**Yeah, the metaphor breaks down there, because it would also have to include serious social penalties for choosing to drink something other than Vitamin Water...
I've been told before that I'm anti-feminist (and perhaps even sexist) because I reject commodified, caricatured ideals of femininity.*
Just realized that I've also gotten a very similar accusation from folks who think I'm anti-sex because I rect similar caricatures of sexuality.
It's kind of scary, IMHO, that these two artificial constructs are so pervasive that they've become assumed to be essential: That people have become so tied into these definitions of what it means to be a woman or to have enjoyable sex that they figure anything that doesn't conform to those constructs obviously can't be authentic.
It's sort of... Oh... The cultural equivalent of arguing that if you prefer what comes out of the tap to a bottle of Vitamin Water, you're anti-water. Just because that bottle has the word "water" on the label doesn't mean it's the end-all, be-all definition of water. And in fact, it's mostly anything but.**
*Nevermind that I also reject caricatures of masculinity.
**Yeah, the metaphor breaks down there, because it would also have to include serious social penalties for choosing to drink something other than Vitamin Water...