Li Yinhe talks about sex

Chapter 57 Feminist Sexual Politics (2)
In short, they put a "politically incorrect" hat on all these "perverted" sexual activities, and they call oppressive, androcentric sexual relations "politically incorrect" sexual relations.Anti-feminists believe that whether it is an adult-juvenile relationship among gay men, a male-female relationship among lesbians, or a sadomasochistic relationship, all sexual relationships are oppressive and therefore "politically inappropriate". correct” sexual relations.The defense of these sexual relationships by sexually liberal feminists argues that such relationships are not imitations of patriarchal relationships of domination and subordination, but rather creative ways for people to explore their own sexuality with positive value.From the perspective of sexual liberal feminism, anti-sex feminists create a sexual environment that is oppressive, if not more oppressive, at least equal to the old system of oppression, which denies the full realization of both sexes. Its warm and happy.

Lesbian feminists are a distinct group in the debate between anti-sex feminism and sexual liberal feminism.They were once called "lesbian separatism".Their view is that heterosexuality is central to male domination and female oppression, and that only lesbianism is a feminist political practice, although not all lesbians are feminists.However, the political stance of lesbians does not require women to establish sexual relations with women, but requires women to not establish sexual relations with men. The slogan "feminism is theory, lesbianism is practice" was all the rage.

In Britain in the late 70s and 80s, many feminists began to redefine their sexual nature and revise their sexual practices.Some people break away from men and start partnering with women, or remain in heterosexual relationships but stop penetrative sexual activity.They believe that any sexual penetration of a woman is an act of aggression that undermines women's confidence and empowers them.For men, it is an act of power and dominance that makes men powerful, not just over one woman, but over all women.This is the view held by the Leeds Revolutionary Feminist Group, a lesbian feminist group in the UK.For many lesbian feminists, these changes are seen as the beginning of a sexual revolution.

In the feminist camp at the time, many women identified with lesbianism not only as a sexual orientation, but also as a political choice.This choice is political because they believe that relationships between men and women are political in nature, with elements of power and domination.By rejecting relations between the sexes and choosing women, the lesbian defies the existing political establishment.In the political currents of the time, many political lesbians were not necessarily sexual lesbians.

This political lesbianism is the ultimate rejection of the theory that sex is simply something women have to do for men, not something women like to do themselves.Lesbian feminists believe that as a member of the female class, there are only two political meanings of sexual practice: either conscious or unconscious reproduction of sexual class and heterosexual ideology; or detachment from heterosexuality and its ideology .Because this view is too radical to be recognized by the majority of women, the separatist sexual revolution expected by gay feminists has never come.

The most extreme of lesbian feminists believe that being a lesbian means not only deviant sexuality, but also deviant gender behavior: nonsubmission to patriarchal gender roles, and gender rebellion, even complete separation from femininity This gender, sees female gender itself as symbolic and substantive subordination to male power.In this model of radical feminism, the genders are no longer limited to two but at least three: masculine, feminine, and lesbian.

In a nutshell, political lesbians of the time saw sex not only as an individual act but as an arena for a struggle in which male dominance and female subordination were either consolidated and maintained or subject to fundamental challenge.They objected to seeing sex as a private and personal thing only, and Jeffreys pointed out that there is a basic assumption that sex is a private and personal thing.Perhaps social and political pressures have some influence on what happens in the bedroom, but sexuality is not thought to affect the structure of power relations in the world outside the bedroom.Sex is understood as the most personal sphere of private life, so it is not surprising that women's movements that regulate male sexuality are seen as incomprehensible or entirely misunderstood. "

However, starting in the mid-80s, the trend began to fade.Lesbians "become normal"; heterofeminists seek the pleasures of penetrative sex; many feminist lesbians openly and violently reject "vanilla" sexual discourse as dangerous Sexual language instead, such as fuck, pleasure, sadomasochism, leather clothing, etc.

It seems to me that sexually liberal feminists sometimes deliberately use shocking discourse to deal with traditional masculine discourse and ideas with excessive impact.In 1970, sexually liberal feminist Greer wrote passionately: "Revolutionary women may join women's liberation groups, berate the police, yell at them, fight them, but you hear Any woman parading down the street lifting up her skirts and saying 'Come and discover, Ovum is beautiful'? The Garden of Eden is the Ovagina. The beautiful saint Mandora is the Ovagina. The mystical rose is the Ovagina. The Ark of God, The gate of heaven. The vulva is the tunnel into which everything is sucked. The vulva is knowledge. Knowledge is receptivity, it is activity. The vulva is the symbol of sexy science, the necessary correction to the technology that insanely conquers all. The skirt must lift , the corset (which women have worn for only a century) must be thrown away forever. The time has come to discover the vulva, and the woman must do it first."

Grant, a sexually liberal feminist, pointed out: "The penis has ruled for too long. In the British Museum, there is a water urn from 430 to 420 BC, which shows a woman watering a row of penises like bamboo shoots. This kind of The image of women serving men as genitals and totems of power has gone on for far too long. The next inevitable step will be a sexual and cultural revolution centered on the clitoris and vagina.

The sexual revolution cannot be fully accomplished without sexual equality between men and women.The future of sex will overthrow phallocentrism, end laws that suppress homosexuality, and there will be more clitcentric activity. "

Sexual liberal feminist McKenzie put it this way: "Why do feminists still admire innocence? Why is innocence still considered a virtue? Sex is not something to be ashamed of at all. Why do we still respect innocence? Is it Opposites are sinful and blameworthy? We don't seem to like sex, we're not encouraged to have a positive view of sex. We're seen as 'dirty' if we have had sex or admit to liking it or 'degenerate'. We are so terrified of being seen as 'whores' that we accept the idea that once we engage in sexual activity, we are nothing but victims in it. 'Respectable' women (including feminist or) hate women who like sex, especially those who like to have sex with men. If women like sex, then we are no longer complete victims of a violent and coercive man. If women like sex, then Sex is no longer the 'price' women pay for what they get from a man (family, marriage, love, security, etc.) The bottom line is that if some women like sex, those are just to keep a relationship Women who have to lie to themselves and sell themselves to endure sexual torture lose their reason for doing so."

The basic point of view of sexual liberal feminism is: only against sexism, not against sex.They criticize Dworkin and McKinnon's argument as being oversimplistic on two levels.One, the reduction of women’s oppression to sexual objectification and oppression; and two, seeing sex as something that men do to women is totally negative and dangerous to women.Sex can be a mechanism of oppression, but it can also be desires, feelings and thoughts for positive female development and liberation.The biggest mistake of anti-feminism is to think that the purpose of heterosexuality and sexism is a conspiracy of men to want women to provide them with maximum sexual pleasure.

Of course, sexual liberals are not uncritical of sex in a patriarchal society.Liberal feminists' critique of sex in a patriarchal society believes that impersonal, purely sexual behavior is a perverted performance of men, and what men should learn from women is that sex can be a wider range , more emotional expression.Although they sharply criticized patriarchal sexual concepts from various aspects and perspectives, they were by no means opposed to sex itself.

Sexual liberals take Foucault's ideas very seriously.Foucault's appeal to feminism lies in his radically anti-essentialist stance and his notion that sexuality is constituted by power rather than merely repressed by it.Although Foucault paid little attention to feminism and gender issues, his attention to the body and his thought of the body as a diffuse carrier of discursive power opened up the way of thinking about the gendered subject.In the West, the body has long been associated with the inferior, the different, the repressed, the dirty, the disgusting, the sexual, and the feminine, and it’s unrefined.Foucault's work "rectified" the human body and made it "become a hallmark", which surprised feminists.Moreover, Foucault himself welcomes the combination of gay and feminism, which he argues allows gays to show that their love of men is not just another form of phallocentrism.

"One of Foucault's most important points about the relationship between feminism and sexuality is that for a long time they tried to confine women to the realm of sexuality. For centuries they have been told: 'You are nothing but your sexuality. Neither.' And this sexuality is fragile, according to doctors, almost always pathological, or always including pathology, 'is the pathology of men.' But the feminist movement has responded challengingly: we are born Is it sexual? Well then, let's just be unique, let's be as special as we are. Let's accept the consequences and re-create our own politics of this type , economic and cultural existence..." Sexual liberal feminists believe that the sexual revolution in the West in the 70s had a greater impact on women than men.In the 60s and early 70s, most women accepted passive roles.They eschew the evil of sex, and by fantasizing about rape

desire guilt.In the media, women are always presented as non-sexual, with associations of death and responsibility. These materials always present women as desire-avoiding, pleasure-averse, sexually innocent figures.After experiencing the sexual revolution, women's sexual patterns have undergone major changes. Women fantasize about mastering the men they like, sharing sexual pleasure with many people, giving and getting all the sex they desire in the way they want and like. hapiness.

In the 80s, women's sexual psychology underwent drastic changes. The sexual revolution did not stop with the election of Reagan and Thatcher. It internalized and developed in the private sphere. The nihilism, death threats, and disillusionment of the future of the '80s were choked by the sexual profusion of new women like never before.

Postmodern feminism, which emerged in the 90s, made a big fuss about sex.Postmodern feminists regard sex as the cultivation force of vitality, and treat the genitals as a part of the spirit, rather than the body separated from the spirit.They communicate thoughts and feelings with sexual language, images and performances.They see sexual censorship as anti-art and anti-human.They empower themselves through sexual affirmation.They find pleasure in falling in love with their sexual selves, healing a sick world.

(End of this chapter)