Last week’s pseudo-scientific load of arse came courtesy of Newsweek. Its cover story presumed that it’s the advancement of feminism that has led to the increased popularity of femsub fiction, television and film. Well, yes: Feminism allows individual women to explore and embrace whatever their own sexual peccadilloes may be, whether femsub, femdom or any range of possible scenarios. However, the article appears to assume that a woman’s natural role is that of the submissive, and that the presumably amorphous hive-mind of female sexuality has embraced these sexual surrender fantasies to counter the rise of those eeeevil feminazis and their man-crushing, cock-blocking, ball-busting, misandrist bids for gender equality at work. ‘It is perhaps inconvenient for feminism that the erotic imagination does not submit to politics, or even changing demographics,’ writes the article’s author, Katie Roiphe. Oh dear.
In response to this article, Dana Goldstein wrote a brilliantly sensible article for The Nation on Feminism and Sadomasochistic Sex, and here’s a snippet:
‘…Why assume, as Roiphe seems to, that some authoritative brand of feminism was ever supposed to lead to human beings losing their curiosity about power play during sex, which is, after all, a physical act? And while more women than men may tend toward submission—in part because Western culture fetishizes male strength and female fragility—one certainly can’t generalize. People of all genders harbor the fantasy of, as one sex researcher put it, “the wish to be beyond will, beyond thought”—thus surrendering power to a trusted partner. And there is anecdotal evidence that publicly powerful people of both sexes are especially prone to these fantasies, as a release from the stresses of their day-to-day work lives. Here’s how one professional dominatrix describes it:
“I like to find out what a man does for a living. I see a lot of Wall Street types who go for bondage and humiliation. Lawyers, actors and entertainment executives never shut up. I have to gag them right away if I’m to have any peace. True masochists are rare—they’re usually police and ex-military. These men are such show-offs about how much pain they can take. I end up acting the role of a sadistic drill instructor, breaking canes and riding crops on their backs, which gives me a certain confidence in our armed forces.”
I will admit that feminism’s forward march contributes to some people’s interest in S&M. Gender roles are more fluid than ever, and there are no longer strict rules about how men and women should act in the realms of dating and romance. There is certainly an appeal to retreating to a sexual space in which roles are much clearer.
Sadomasochism is problematic if one partner is doing it just to please the other and feels hurt by it. But I don’t think truly consensual S&M complicates women’s demands for full equality, or provides evidence of some anti-feminist backlash among the urban educated class that is consuming work like “Girls,” “Secretary” and Fifty Shades of Grey. Because many women now assume a certain level of egalitarianism at work and at home, they feel more comfortable experimenting sexually…’
Read the full, very-bloody-good article here.
