What Does Sex Mean to Me?
At about the same time that song came out from a band called Human Sexual Response, Andrea Dworkin started making headlines with her assertion that all sexual penetration of any kind of a woman by a man was a form of rape.
I was a much younger man then, and sexually insecure, and she made me furious with that remark. Now she's dead.
I don't consider myself thoroughly mature, nor completely sexually confident, but despite my anger at Dworkin for the difficulties she added to the world and to relations between the sexes, I can't find it in my heart to gloat over her death. Maybe there's hope for me yet.
The net has a number of obituaries for her - so far the best one I've read is here. I like it because it's sympathetic and merciful, though written by a woman Dworkin seems to have loathed.
That interests me very much, because if the situation were reversed - if Susie Bright had died and Andrea Dworkin were called upon to write an obituary - somehow I doubt Dworkin would have been so charitable.
It's only speculation on my part, of course, but if I'm right about these two women's respective attitudes towards each other, that gives us two instructive examples. In Andrea Dworkin we have a woman who had a loathing for sex and a serious lack of empathy. In Susie Bright, on the other hand, we have a woman who loves sex, has a partner and child, and feels for a fellow human being who suffered and died in pain. I doubt that's a coincidence.
And that's what sex means to me.
Benshlomo says, Enjoy what your body can do, but don't forget your soul can do a lot more with the same equipment.
I was a much younger man then, and sexually insecure, and she made me furious with that remark. Now she's dead.
I don't consider myself thoroughly mature, nor completely sexually confident, but despite my anger at Dworkin for the difficulties she added to the world and to relations between the sexes, I can't find it in my heart to gloat over her death. Maybe there's hope for me yet.
The net has a number of obituaries for her - so far the best one I've read is here. I like it because it's sympathetic and merciful, though written by a woman Dworkin seems to have loathed.
That interests me very much, because if the situation were reversed - if Susie Bright had died and Andrea Dworkin were called upon to write an obituary - somehow I doubt Dworkin would have been so charitable.
It's only speculation on my part, of course, but if I'm right about these two women's respective attitudes towards each other, that gives us two instructive examples. In Andrea Dworkin we have a woman who had a loathing for sex and a serious lack of empathy. In Susie Bright, on the other hand, we have a woman who loves sex, has a partner and child, and feels for a fellow human being who suffered and died in pain. I doubt that's a coincidence.
And that's what sex means to me.
Benshlomo says, Enjoy what your body can do, but don't forget your soul can do a lot more with the same equipment.
posted by benshlomo at 4:03 PM
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