“Listen Up” always provides good stories about different topics that feminist face. Rebecca Walker’s “Lusting for Freedom” was a very interesting read. Her account on her sexual experiences was very different to what I’m used to hearing. She lost her virginity at a very young age and how she played different roles with each of the men she was with was also weird (to me). I’m glad she was able to do this without a loss of innocence or the felling of guilt. She had a good point about sex for girls, “Sex can also be power because knowledge is power, and because yeah, as a girl, you can make it do different things: I can give it to you, and I can take it away… (Walker 20)” Most women do have that power in deciding whether or not a couple has sex. You don’t hear very often of men turning down sex. In most movies and shows it’s about the girl wanting to wait and the boy trying to coax her into sex. This is a type of power. She also talks about how women are punished for exploring their sexuality by being called sluts or impure. She doesn’t think that is fair, she thinks women should have a safe place to explore their bodies. “Sex… It can be more: more sensual, more spiritual, more about communication and healing (24).” This is good way of explaining sex and how it can be more than just the physical stuff but also involved in mental stuff.
“Tight Jeans and Chania Chorris” by Sonia Shah is good example of how sexuality varies cross culturally. In this article Sonia describes how her sister had taken on Western ideas of sexy and how she started wearing tight jeans and reviling clothes. Her parents are upset but not for the reasons that I assume, like they don’t want her dressing too sexy. But in fact they didn’t want her dressing sexy in American clothes. When Sonia’s sister wears sexy Indian clothes they are fine with it. That was a neat little twist at the end. The fact that they only found it inappropriate when she was wearing Western clothing was interesting. It shows that culture can also play a huge role in deciding whether sexy is appropriate or not.
Susan Douglas’s chapter entitled Sex “R” US was good read. I really enjoy her chapters the most, even though I disagree with some of the stuff she says. When she talks about Calvin Klein and the photo shoots he did, I was really disturbed. I can’t believe he would ever think it was ok for four years to jump around in only underwear. It’s really never ok to sexualize children. Douglas then goes on to describe the female icon that began to come into main stream media, “the sexpert” as she calls it. “The sexpert knows a lot about sex is comfortable with sex, initiates and enjoys sex on an equal footing with me, and talks a lot about sex with her girlfriends (Douglas 156).” The sexpert is white, well off, and really pretty. And by becoming a sexpert your suppose to cater men and what they want. Pick up any Cosmo and all it’s about is how to please your man. I don’t understand how submitting makes you the one in power and I think Douglas has a problem with this point also. Douglas describes all these shows and stores that sell sex, Cosmo, Abercrombie and Fitch, and even Toddlers and Tiaras. The Toddlers and Tiaras show is so creepy and really don’t understand why these parents make their kids enter beauty pageants at age 3. The magazine Cosmo started off sort of risqué magazine but not too hard core and now it’s all about sex and what a man wants in bed. Television has also seen a rise in sexual content. “The sexual content of prime-time shows – both scenes and references – increased from 43 percent in 1976 to 75 percent in 1996 (168).” That is huge percentage to me, how are families suppose to sit down and watch a show like that? It would probably be so awkward and parents don’t want to have to explain a sexual reference to a young child. Plus parents probably don’t want their impressionable kids watching that kind of stuff. Sex and the City is a perfect example of the sexpert. It showed sex in a positive way in the female perspective. Yeah most of their conversation revolved around men and relationships but the show also had a huge emphases on the sisterhood between the four women, and how that was the most important relationship out of anything. Rap videos were Douglas next topic that jumped out at me. Most rap is the most women hating thing out there. Douglas had a great quote, “We love hip hop, but does hip hop love us (179)?” That’s actually a really good question because I love rap music but some songs make me really question that choice. Some women rappers like lil Kim and da brat try to portray the “hard” female who acts just like males. But they make me just as uncomfortable as the men. I understand their trying to take back words like bitch and stuff like that. But bitch to me is always going to have a negative association to me. I think sex ed is good thing at the right age. I think around freshman year in high school all kids should get some kid of sexual education. Kids don’t have sex because of the class; they don’t get the idea from that. But the class could really explain the dangers of sex (STDs) and can offer protection options for kids who are ready or think they are ready. The media shows enough sex but in the media they don’t really talk about protection or STDs so kids need a way to learn about it. The media is really increasing its sexual content and hopefully the American society can handle it.
Patricia Collins’s article is a fascinating look into male and female black sexuality. She says the black women have been portrayed of having animal like sexuality and Black men having violent and dangerous sexuality. Both, male and female, are hyper sexualized, this in turn gives people a reason to associate blacks with uncivilized ways. Is this still going on today? Do people still associate blackness with gorillas and apes. Maybe not most people, but some defiantly do, racism still exists. “Black sexual stereotypes are rendered virtually invisible by their ubiquity; yet, they persist through a disconnected mélange of animal skins, sexually explicit lyrics, breast worship and focus on the booty (Collins 29).” I like this quote because it’s kind of like enlighten sexism because people think black people have conquered racism and things like that so it’s alright for them to be over the top wild.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTDk85A18aE
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