cheer up luv!

[acclog]

Just discovered Ariel Levy. Seems promising, and she has written the best Dworkin Obit yet. Has anyone read her book? Anyway the site cheered me up after gritting my teeth this week, and having otherwise perfectly well-read and intelligent men come out with utter crap about feminism. Well they are entitled to have crap opinions I suppose, it's more

Comments

[bridiep]

Interesting stuff. I enjoyed the obit. Not having been a huge fan of Dworkin myself, I can acknowledge that there was, and probably still is, a place for her voice and opinions in the world. I like the sound of Ariel Levy too. If you get the book, can I borrow it? ;-)

And don't get me started on 'burlesque'!

[acclog]

You know I'd *love* to hear your opinion about burlesque... orlandox has mentioned the Dublin Burlesque Wars to me and they sound pretty exciting. I'm just not sure I want to know what neofeminist means. Do post on it sometime, please.xxx

[synesis]

Levy's book is great, definitely worth reading - its key observation is (it seems to me) that agency, and particularly sexual agency, is multivectored, diverse and complicated and that the notion of 'choice' exists within a continuum of unsconscious stresses and obligations. Further, I think she's the first writer in a while to recognise that agency and choice do not necessarily lead to wise or beneficial choices; the hard truth for a lot of us is that freedom became such a canard that we forgot that after the political struggle for 'freedom' (whatever that polyvalent term actually means, and not that we've really achieved it) our learning is far from complete

GirlCooties

[acclog]

wave! Thanks for the links- Finn is sounding promising, although prostitution is a topic is something I tend to disagree with pretty much everyone about...I just edited out a long rant there!

The taboo thing- the only phenomenon I can compare it to is many people's response to Christian material. There's a sort of wrinkling of the nose and the impression that even looking at a book might somehow infect the reader (with girlcooties?).

Socialist vs Radical feminism? Socialists would never win,they dress so badly! William Morris would have turned in his grave. Not that the Radicals were any better. Seriously. That's why we help establish the 'prosex' movement- against the terrible jumpers.

Now I'm wondering what a ChristCootie looks like.

[theruffian]

"Sometimes, when you’re reading Dworkin, it can be difficult to determine whether you are supposed to be offended or masturbating."

is a great line, thanks for that