September 13, 2009

How to Think

I'm feeling terribly lazy today (which is a huge step up from exhausted). In lieu of the thoughts on outreach and purity movements that are bubbling around in my head (the thoughts, not the...oh, never mind), I direct you to the generally excellent Vagina Dentata and a crash course in critical thinking.

This was interesting because it challenged me and my preconceptions about women engaged in BDSM. It wasn’t what she said on the EA Games issue, all of which I agree with: this objectifies women, ‘Booth Babe’ is a demeaning term, it encourages sexual harassment not just of the ‘Booth Babes’ but all women attending ComicCon etc.

There are two things that I find challenging about this: empowered feminists being sexually submissive and BDSM models criticising the objectification of women.

Step 1: Don't dismiss the cognitive dissonance.

Read the rest.

4 comments:

DuWayne Brayton said...

Hmm...I haven't made it through the whole piece (which is going to make the next three hours of class a sheer hell), but I think I am going to have to take a short pause from my series on moral relativism to write about this one. I think that Naomi addresses some very important issues in a very well reasoned and concise fashion.

I have felt for a very long time, that it is actually somewhat misogynistic to presume to think that any individual women can be chastised for how her actions reflect on other women. And I think this is especially important when it comes to addressing sexuality.

Stephanie Zvan said...

Guys do get the same pressure, DuWayne, although I think it's generally not spoken quite as clearly.

What is different for women, in my observations, is the degree to which the life/personality/behavior options we're expected to choose between are dichotomous. Buffet-style doesn't go over well, probably because it makes us harder to categorize.

DuWayne Brayton said...

Oh I know it Stephanie - know it and will totally be integrating it into my post.

As an aside, my classes were cut short - psych didn't happen today - YAY!!

DuWayne Brayton said...

All right - I posted it...