Archive for the 'sex' Category

“You hot slut!”

Published by
Sarah
at November 17, 2006 in femininity, pop-culture, raunch and sex. 1 Comment

I walk out the house one night looking fly, and 19-yr- old Model girl stares with interest, “You hot slut!” she shrieks grinning madly.

I freeze for a second. Then break out in an involuntary smile- there is so much love in these words i can’t describe it.

“Filthy slut,” “skanky ho”, even “hot bitch” have morphed into common terms of endearment between young women.

In the absence of external objectification are we just objectifying each other? Or has “slut” been redefined to denote female sexual empowerment?

Is this camraderie of boorishness especially among the “educated student set” - where getting “smashed” and “high”, having multiple boyfriends and being the most materialistic is the ultimate symbol of status- a regression or a progression?

Are we proving women can go just as hard and fast as the guys? Or is it just a shallow form of self-absorbed competition and conformity?

Ariel Levy, author of “Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the rise of raunch culture” writes that “Girls gone Wild” is a phenomenon that seems to suggest liberation but really just panders to a banal form of consumerism and titillation that masquerades as empowerment.

In a world where Jenna Jameson not Jane Eyre is the cultural icon, even Punk Rocker Pink wonders , “What happened to the dreams of a girl President? She’s dancing in the video next to 50 cent…”

He said it

Published by
Anna
at November 12, 2006 in Politics, choice, health and sex. 1 Comment

“I won’t be rushing out to get my daughters vaccinated. Maybe that’s because I’m a cruel, callow, callous, heartless bastard but look - I won’t be.”

Tony Abbott, Minister for Health on delaying funding for cervical cancer vaccine until 2008.

Trifecta!

Published by
Sarah
at October 26, 2006 in Islam, rape, religion and sex. 0 Comments

It’s a hatrick people!

We have had trivialisation of rape from world leaders, a criminal lark by schoolboys and now a glorious trifecta!

Anna has already scooped me on “Australian Mufti” Sheikh Taj al-din al-Hilali comments that women who do not wear the Islamic hijab invite rape.

“If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it … whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat,” the cleric said.

“The uncovered meat is the problem.

“If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred.”

Besides the objectification of women ’s function as merely “pieces of meat” for men’s gratification and the equally insulting likening of men to predatory animals, the whole debacle is revealing on the hysterical fantasies of the shiekh.

Muslim women and clothing has become an obsession- a fetish of epic proportions for muslims and non-muslims alike inspiring countless debates, stories and controversies.

Not only is the scrutiny women undergo in terms of their so-called morals, dress and deportment torturous it’s also demeaning.

When sexuality becomes the defining aspect of someone’s character, nullifying a person’s achievements, abilities and intellect- it is revealing a deeper anxiety.

When sermons are filled with exhortations on dress, satanic impulses, lusts, busts and temptations is it not merely confirming the western stereotype of Islam (or Muslims rather) as obsessed with sex, harems and houris, rather than emphasising a spiritual path to good works?

This kind of education has a hugely damaging impact on young people. It is a crucible for shame, guilt and neurosis and is not healthy for relationships.

Muslim leaders are free to preach abstinence- but they must do it without exhortations to demonic forces, and be balanced and open in their education.

The positive that has been extracted from this debacle (if that is possible) is that it has strengthened the acceptable parameters of comment on the issue.

Now even conservative leaders and muslim spokespeople have come to a unanimous agreement that the clothing and deportment of a person is never a incitement to rape.

This may seem self-evident- but such a definitive political statement is radical considering the proliferation of “she asked for it” mentalities proliferating even today.

Modern day law cases are filled with interrogations of the clothing, behaviour and even past sexual-life of sex assault victims.

Let’s hope the chorus of voices condemning the Shiekh’s remarks today will echo in those circumstances too.

Abortion and control: Debunking myths about the “pro-life” agenda

Published by
Anna
at October 9, 2006 in abortion, breeding, choice, christianity, fundamentalism and sex. 14 Comments

One thing that deserves reiteration in the whole pro-choice v. anti-choice dichotomy is the true intentions of “pro-lifers”. What they claim as their main aim (i.e. stopping abortions) rarely, if ever, correlates to their actions. To you and me, the idea of reducing abortions has a simple solution: stop unwanted pregnancies. And how? By thorough, comprehensive and accurate sex education and available contraception on demand.

The anti-choice movement’s actions belie their true agenda, and that is control of women’s lives. It is a myth that they are “pro-life”. They could be considered “pro-foetus” I guess, but the foetus isn’t the only “life” that is on the line, especially when abortion is outlawed as I’ve explored before .

Exhibit A: Anti-contraception

The anti-choice movement rails against contraception. They view pregnancy and STIs as a punishment for “fallen” women, that she should be forced to endure as punishment for having sex. Their true agenda here? Stopping women from being independent and sexual human beings- that is the domain of men, and women should only have sex when the pleasure of their husband is wont to be met (and for the sake of pro-creation of course). Their “abstinence-only” education is a fast-track to increasing abortion rates, not to mention how psychologically damaging this virginity fetishisation can sometimes be to young girls.

Restricting contraception, including emergency contraception (the morning-after pill) results in higher instances of unwanted pregnancies and thus abortion. This isn’t hard to figure out so those out there who consider themselves “pro-life” surely realise this to be the case. So I will repeat: Their agenda is restricting sexual and reproductive freedom not saving babies. It is about hating women. It is about relegating women to their “proper” sphere, which to the downfall of society, they have departed from in the past few decades.

Exhibit B: The rape exemption

Many “pro-lifers” concede an abortion exception to rape and incest victims. Even the most fundie Christian variety of pro-lifer concede some sort of exemption for “pure women”. As one US fundie put it an exemption in abortion criminalisation could be:

Continue reading ‘Abortion and control: Debunking myths about the “pro-life” agenda’

Estudando O Pagode

Published by
Eliza Sarlos
at September 11, 2006 in Politics, pop-culture and sex. 0 Comments

Cultural guru? I’m not so sure. Maybe cultural commentator, if culture is limited to the small sector I engage with, but this is a blog and therefore its contents are defined by its author, namely me.

For post number one I thought I’d introduce you to one of my favourite all time artists, Tom Zé, and his new record, Estudando O Pagode. I’m still in two minds as to whether men can practice feminism, but I’d say in the case of Tom Zé he does a good job of engaging with, commenting on, and participating in developing ideas of feminism in a pop-cultural context.

Here’s the Zé intro: Born in 1936 in the Bahia region of Brazil, Zé has been a part of outsider culture coming out of Brazil since he first started making music. His early work dealt with his impressions of metropolitan Brazil, following his move to the relatively massive Sao Paulo coming from the poor northeast, but as time and ideas progressed he became a crucial part of the Tropicalia movement of the late 60s (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropicalia for more info). Using music as a platform to experiment with ideas and comment on politics through a more oblique language, the Tropicalistas created a form of political activism that proved effective because of its populist tenets and the way this blended with both creative and political experimentalism. Zé is perhaps most well known for his oft-quoted proclamation, “I don’t make art, I make spoken and sung journalism.”

I’d go so far as to say that this record is a musical essay, journalism in its most critically engaged form.

Over the last 40 years not much has changed, Zé has been at the forefront of combining cultural observations with an agenda engaged with musical experimentalism, political observation, social commentaries and subversive populism equally. That he has achieved all of these with considerable amounts of success is remarkable.

So what makes his most recent record relevant to this blog? Read on and see, this is a review/ appreciation of sorts.

Continue reading ‘Estudando O Pagode’

It’s International Whores’ Day

Published by
Anna
at June 2, 2006 in sex. 0 Comments

From SX:

On June 2, 1975, a group of sex workers in Lyon, France, and their supporters took over a church to protest against police harassment of street workers, increasing numbers of arrests and a lack of interest shown by police in solving murders and other crimes committed against those working in the sex industry.

The protestors challenged the police to arrest anyone they could identify as a sex worker, making the point being that most sex workers are ordinary people doing a job and cannot be told apart from others. This action led to the modern-day international sex workers’ rights movement, with celebrations for International Whores’ Day taking place tomorrow across the world.

In NSW, there are approximately 10,000 sex workers, with around 40% of those operating privately from home, and while sex work remains predominantly the domain of women – the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) estimates around 95% of its clients are heterosexually-identified females – decriminalisation in NSW in 1995 has made it a more attractive proposition for men to offer sexual services to other men.

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