I've been enjoying the fracas over at the blog whose name i shall not utter (partially because i hate Yale, and partially because i resent the fact that Daniel Munz called me a "detatched lunatic." I mean, really). While i have heard several friends within the transgendered community counterpose their sexual practices to "straight sex," i think this distinction assumes an entirely different context and connotiation when it's being made by a reactionary right wing homophobic straight white Yale man, and thus the objections raised by Chris, Michael, Alyssa, and Evan are all entirely germane and incisive, though see the comments for my panegyric ode to the sex toy.
Who knows, maybe i have a future as the Village Voice's first ridiculously celibate straight male sex columnist. I could call my column "Lack of Sex and the City." Hot.
Except that i wouldn't, because to do so would be to commodify sexual pleasure in a way which constructs the feminine as mute object of male gratification, and that kind of stinks. So no sex columns for me.
Ah, now I see where you were coming from on the Charlton Heston condom video. In any case, it feels strange when I read my own comments, given that teen pregnancy and sex ed aren't really the most relevant topics for a celibate gay man.
ReplyDelete-Evan
I'm surprised by my own vehemence. I'm less concerned wit teen pregnancy (though i definitely was when i was 17-18) than with the gender politics of sex-ed and women's sexual pleasure. Yet again, i draw most of my ideas from something my friend Katie wrote for her job with a Mexico City feminist NGO last year, because i steal most of my ideas from Katie anyway. Sorry, K.
ReplyDeleteThe more dogmatically "libertarian" anarchist in me wants to shout that people will construct their own sexual education(s) regardless of whatever patriarchical discourse they're spoonfed in high school and that time would be better spent encouraging students to organize themselves to create spaces for a more radical sexual politics to be discussed and pondered. I think it's the Gramscian half of my brain that's concerned with the ways in which sex-ed contributes to (or fails to contribute to) a sexual hegemony and a broader hegemonic construction of womens' sexuality and power in particular. I'm not sure that these are mutually exclusive critiques.
As for the charlton heston thing, well, i have no idea where i was coming from with that.
Hey, my masterwork on "Sexual Pleasure as an Integral Component of Sexual Pleasure" is finally coming out. Sadly, I think my attempts to self-critique IMIFAP on the heteronormativity of its sex ed programs got cut in the final edits. Anyway, watch for my debut as an academic (co)author in the next issue of "Feminism and Psychology"!
ReplyDelete-Katie
oops, that should be "Sexual Pleasure as an Integral Component of Sexuality Education."
ReplyDelete-k
Oh my god, that's awesome.
ReplyDeleteNow i can totally footnote you.