A Young White Male Addresses Sexism, Feminism, and the Modern Conception of Beauty

Sexualization of women is a serious issue and it is one that I fear will haunt my future daughters’. What Third Wave Feminists would promote would be an inclusion of women into an anything goes mentality of sex. It would be the elimination of judgment words such as whore or slut. It would be equality with men in the freedom of sexuality. Why? Is man’s view on sexuality a positive one? Not only is this liberalness with sexuality more dangerous because women are the child bearers and that unrestrained sex biologically is more of a risk to a woman than it is to a man, but also the mentality of two wrongs making a right is being promoted. Third Wavers are saying that although it is wrong for men to sexualize women it is okay for women to sexualize themselves in the spirit of curiosity. Why? Sexualization will turn its’ ugly head whenever women quit allowing themselves to be sexualized in the name of “beauty.” This is not beauty. So now the question obviously arises: Well what makes you think that men should be able to seek this pleasure philosophy and women should not. I have actually summed up my research of feminism to boil down to this question that has been being addressed by every wave of feminism as the underlying dilemma that has been driving them. The question is: Is it wrong to hold women to higher moral standards than man? First Wavers would say no, that women are held higher and more responsible because they are higher. Second and Third Wavers would say yes, men and women should be equal in every domain of life. I would say no and that it must start with sexuality. What would you say?

Endnotes:

1. “The Beauty Myth” by Naomi Wolf
2. Is it any surprise that the adult entertainment industry is the highest grossing entertainment business (it had a net profit of $12.5 billion in 2005)? The porn industry literally makes its’ billions off of this very purpose, that the woman is obtained and eagerly gives pleasure to the man. In my mind it is something like an, “image servitude” because it is not merely about just sex anymore but more-so about the portrayal of the woman (frankly, as a slut) during that sex.
3. Is he a lesbian too?
4. It is important to make a quick note. Historically speaking, every wave or increase in feminism has happened hand in hand with other movements (typically movements that had already started). I’m cautious about saying that the feminist movement has historically “clung” onto other movements that were already in full force, but in reality, that’s how it happened. First with the Democratic Revolutions. Then with the anti-slavery movements of the mid-1800’s. Then it was with the Marxist and Socialist movements. Then the radical movements of the 60’s and the Civil Rights Movement. And then, finally, it was in the 1990’s with the transgender and homosexual rights movements. Every instance, one of these major movements was picking up pace when the feminist movement for that time period started. The only exception would be the temperance movement of the early 1900’s (which actually holds much responsibility for women getting the right to vote). This temperance movement was actually a by-product of the feminist movement. This is the only exception however. I’m not trying to bash the feminist movements. I’m just pointing out the facts. Of course, one could always argue that it was only natural for the women’s movements to occur as byproducts of these movements because the movements brought about change and freedoms for the parts of the societies and that women wanted to be included in this freedom, the thinking that a liberties’ movement that did not address women’s liberties was not really a freer society at all.
5. No Turning Back, Estelle B. Freedman
6. Europe has always, always, always, been weary of democracy. They’ve always been far left or far right. They took democracy force fed to them (post-WW II for the West and post-Communism for the East) and again they are at it, today, as I write this, pushing democracy to its’ furthest- left (in Western Europe.) It is breeding a culture of rampant individualism with no cultural morals. Welfare states are being born and democratic-socialism is being considered in the wake of the economic turmoil. Why we Americans would ever even consider anything that comes out of Europe regarding politics and democracy is a mystery to me. Historically they have never appreciated American democracy and they never will. It’s always been a land of political experiment (ending in massive failure) and it always will be.
7. No Turning Back, Estelle B. Freedman
8. The Essential Feminist Reader, “Social Purity” (pg. 91).
9. No Turning Back (pg. 72).
10. Essential Feminist Reader, “The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan
11. Betty Friedan really used some excellent psychological theory to back up her assumption that the problem was due to women being trapped inside the home and wondering is this all that there is to my life? Isn’t there something more or something missing? I am a psychology nerd so I want to share my favorite theory that she utilized. “Scientists of human behavior have become increasingly interested in the basic human need to grow, man’s will to be all that is in him to be…Anxiety comes only with freedom” (the classic dilemma is freedom vs. security). “Anxiety occurs at the point where some emerging potentiality or possibility faces the individual, some possibility of fulfilling his existence; but this very possibility involves the destroying of present security, which thereupon gives rise to the tendency to deny the new potentiality (pgs. 310- 312, The Feminine Mystique.) What she is saying is that women (although they were secure living as housewives) really did not have any freedom because there was no future for them. They woke up every morning and knew what the day would be: cleaning the house, packing lunch for the kids, cooking dinner for the family.) There was nothing more that life could bring and it was this, knowing that they had reached their pinnacle and there was no room for growth, improvement, or change that constituted the core of the “problem that had no name” in the 1950’s suburban housewife.
12. No Turning Back, (pg. 92).
13. As if when a woman becomes a lesbian she grows a penis to become both or neither genders. Seriously the piece was ridiculous and if you want to read something comic that thinks of itself as a serious and legitimate argument then I would recommend Wittig’s.
14. No Turning Back
15. The Essential Feminist Reader
16. So Sexy So Soon