Why Sex-Positive Feminism is Falling Out of Fashion
(Link): Why Sex-Positive Feminism is Falling Out of Fashion
Sept 24, 2021
by Sarah Greenberg
…But sex positivity now seems to be fading from fashion among younger people, failing to speak to their longings and frustrations just as anti-porn feminism failed to speak to those of an earlier generation.
It’s no longer radical, or even really necessary, to proclaim that women take pleasure in sex.
If anything, taking pleasure in sex seems, to some, vaguely obligatory.
In a July BuzzFeed News article headlined, “These Gen Z Women Think Sex Positivity Is Overrated,” one 23-year-old woman said, “It feels like we were tricked into exploiting ourselves.”
I started noticing the abandonment of sexual positivity a few years ago when I wrote about a renewed interest in Dworkin’s work.
Since then, there have been growing signs of rebellion by young women against a culture that favors erotic license over empathy and responsibility.
(A similar shift is occurring in other areas; generational battles for free speech often revolve around whether freedom should trump sensitivity.)
After #MeToo, feminists expanded the types of sex considered coercive to include not only assault, but also situations where there are significant power differences.
Others are using new terms for what appear to be old trends. The word “demisexual” refers to those who are only attracted to people with whom they share an emotional connection.
Before the sexual revolution, of course, a lot of people thought most women were like this. Now, an aversion to casual sex has turned into a bona fide sexual orientation.
In March, Vox’s Rebecca Jennings reported on the spread of the “Cancel Porn” movement on TikTok. “It’s just one facet of a conservatism, for lack of a better term, that’s proliferating on TikTok from rather unlikely sources,” she wrote.
“Young, presumably progressive women (for the most part)” who think that what’s sometimes called “choice feminism” caters to “patriarchy and the male gaze.”
Jennings quoted the caption to one video: “Liberal feminism telling young girls that hookup culture is liberating, conditioning them to think that if you don’t have extreme kinks at a young age then they’re boring and vanilla, and encouraging them to get into sex work the minute they turn 18.”
Feminism is supposed to ease some of the dissonance between what women want and what they feel they’re supposed to want.
Sex-positive feminism was able to do that for women who felt hemmed in by sexual taboos and pressured to deny their own turn-ons.
But today it seems less relevant to women who feel brutalized by the expectation that they’ll be open to anything.
Related:
(Link): The Christian and Non Christian Phenomenon of Virgin Shaming and Celibate Shaming
(Link): We’re Casual About Sex and Serious About Consent. But Is It Working? by J. Zimmerman
(Link): Why are young feminists so clueless about sex? by M. Wente
(Link): Woman Says She Refuses to Hook-up with Men ‘For Fun’ – Says Most Men She’s Met Are Willing to Wait
(Link): I’m a Virgin, So Why Am I Being Slut-Shamed? by Ashley Iaconetti
(Link): The Contemporary Church Undervalues Celibacy / Virginity
(Link): Why Young Christians Aren’t Waiting Anymore (from CNN – more Christians are Fornicating)
(Link): Why Are Young People Having So Little Sex? America is in a Sex Recession – by K. Jullian – via The Atlantic
(Link): A Day In The Life Of An Abstinence Ed Teacher by S. Gomez
(Link): Some Researchers Argue that Shame Should Be Used to Treat Sexual Compulsions
(Link): The Contemporary Church Undervalues Celibacy / Virginity
(Link): Living Myths About Virginity – article from The Atlantic
(Link): Why Are Christian Guys Silent About Abstinence? by C. Hill
(Link): Are You Ashamed of Biblical [Sexual] Purity? by J. Slattery
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