Feminism, Kate, and Sex-Positive Feminism

[nessus@mit.edu (Douglas Alan)]

>   To let you know, feminism is defined as believing in equality for
>   all people, borne out by the variety of other issues most
>   feminists are involved in, i.e. racism, gay rights. You cannot use
>   feminist as a dirty word, despite what conservatives keep saying,
>   and I seriuosly doubt that KT, who fills her songs with the
>   emotions of being a woman would appreciate having among her fans
>   people who do.

>   Jennifer @ the feminist boyfriend's house

Actually ...  Kate herself in at least one interview has mildly
disparaged Feminists and has said that she does not consider herself
to be a Feminist.  How can it be that an enlightened member of society
could not be a Feminist?  Its premise of equality for all seems fairly
inoccuous.  The truth is that Feminists have shot themselves in the
foot and continue to do so.  The mainstream impression of the Feminist
movement is of seperatist, androgynous, lesbian, pro-censorship,
anti-pornography (unless it is lesbian pornogrpahy) men-hating women.

Does this impression have any basis in fact?  Well I don't know from
first hand experience, but I have met a number of female equality
activists who claim that indeed it does.  These women used to be part
of the organized Feminist movement but became disillusioned with it
and left.  They felt that a vocal intolerant minority of the movement
took control and has successfully foisted their agenda on the
mainstream of the Feminist movement.  These women therefore don't like
to call themselves Feminists.  Instead of insisting on lesbianism,
they feel that in addition to lesbianism, bisexual and heteosexual
lifestyles are also perfectly acceptable.  They are opposed to
censorship and feel that heterosexual erotica (even erotica that is
often called pornography) has a useful purpose in society.  They
sometimes refer to themselves with the term "Sex-Positive Feminists".
They believe that it is perfectly okay for women to be feminine,
rather than androgynous, and they like many men rather than thinking
that all of them are to be shunned.

Your experience with Feminism may be different, since certainly all
Feminist organizations are not the same; however, you should be aware
of why Feminism has gotten a dirty name in some circles, since
with such knowledge you can fight against becoming irrelevant.

|>oug

P.S. I asked a pannel of Sex-Positive Feminists what they thought
about Feminist claims that such magazines as Playboy and Hustler cause
great anxiety and eating disorders among women by institutionalizing
an ideal of beauty against which most women cannot hope to attain.
The consensus was that although there is a grain of truth to this, it
is women's magazines such as Vogue that are infinitely more
responsible for this, and this is where Feminists should look to
counter this problem--if they really cared about solving the problem
rather than needing an excuse to justify latent puritanicalism.  The
Sex-Positive Feminists also though that censorship and the stigma of
pornography causes there to be a more limited spectrum of pornography
available, and that if censorship were quelled and society came to
appreciate the value of pornography, then this would result in a wider
spectrum of pornography and thus a more representative spectrum of body
types.

Of course, this does not mean that there would still not be ideals of
beauty that would be difficult for many people to obtain, but on the
other hand Michael Angelo sculpted David rather than me, and I can
live with this.