At our event on September 11th, we’re going to get some great women talking LIVE AND IN PERSON about the current divide between feminism and femininity, by questioning how we’re supposed to feel about the media’s obsession with Paris, Lindsey and Britney. Below are some of the questions I’m giving to the speakers and hosts to get them thinking. If you have any other thoughts, add them in to the comments section. Can’t wait to see everyone there….
Twenty years ago, People and Us were filled with tributes to women triumphing over adversity—good girls with stories that enhanced their glow—Marie Osmond, Olivia Newton John, Cheryl Ladd. Now, the tabloids tell stories of bad girls getting their punishment. What has changed in our culture that makes this the story that now sells magazines?
If feminism supports the connection between all women and sex workers, why don’t we support Paris, Britney and Lindsey? Are they not simply the world’s highest paid sex workers?
In her new book, The Female Thing, Laura Kipnis writes of the chasm between feminism and feminity. She posits that women can’t really take hold of their power until they recognize the conflicted female psyche and it’s propensity toward the rape fantasy, which she calls a a sub-textual acknowledgement of women's propensity to masochism. In other words, if privately, women don’t really (or always) want to “be on top,” does this ultimately put us at odds with trying to build a strong power base as activists?
Is Paris Hilton a child of porn?
What part of women’s fulfillment of their sexual wholeness involves enjoying being looked at? Being seen? Being an object? What is the difference between those three?
Is pornography by definition filmed? Is it possible for two people to have sex that is neither filmed nor distributed that is still pornographic?
Do women have much more influence over men than they realize? Do most women have more or less power over their men than they want?
Is it possible that the problem with porn is that, as a performance distributed to many different people, its end use is uncertain, in both sexual and spiritual ways? Could this be said of any media, including a horror movie or High School Musical? Does the involvement of sex behoove its producers to consider the relationship between sex and love? Should sex be sacred? Is it painful for people to engage in sex that’s not sacred?
Is Paris being punished ultimately for her sex tape or her life?
2 comments:
Oh, wow, I've got to get that book "The Female Thing."
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