“Women often find ways to resist male supremacy and to expand their spheres of action. But they are never free of it.”
There is no part of our lives as women that isn’t in some way affected by sexual objectification. Catherine MacKinnon’s examination of female sexuality was difficult to read because it was so frank and dire. Women exist with the threat of sexual abuse in a state of fear and denial since female sexuality is largely defined by male dominance.
My reaction to this reading is one of disbelief. Reading that men are more willing to aggress against women after viewing sexually explicit material shocked and disappointed me. The fact that such material is still available knowing that it could cause such harm to women illustrates women’s inferior position in society. The subsequent statement that a third of men would rape a woman if they knew they wouldn’t get caught left me stunned. Are women that devalued that such an announcement is made with no public outcry? I don’t even know what else to say.
2 comments:
Society as devalued the entire institution of sex. It is viewed as something fun. Something casual. Something disconnected. It scares me to think that future generations are growing up in a world where they see images of a woman having an orgasm in aisle three because her shampoo is so great. Damned Herbal Essence commercials.
You said, that "women exist with the threat of sexual abuse in a state of fear and denial since female sexuality is largely defined by male dominance."
I think that it is problematic for anyone's sexuality to be defined as an offset of another person or institution. Until women, and men, define their sexuality for themselves based on their own emotions and connectivity of spirituality to self-identiy people will not attain sexual freedom. Sexuality I think is a deeper understanding of self and fully accepting that they are a sexual being without shame or pressure to normalize. This male dominance is a way to control women so that remain enslaved even with their own sexual exploration or fulfillment.
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