Dare To Be A Feminist

Has sex-positive feminism, despite its victories, forgotten that sex work is actually work, and often quite brutal?

...Despite the acceptance of “sluts,” the “prostitute” remains a deeply embedded symbolic marker between decency and disrespect. The “ethical slut” engages in sex of her or his own “free” will, while the “dirty whore” insists on getting paid for sex. Sex-positive feminists and other “sluts” believe there is nothing morally wrong with consensual sex between two (or more) people in private, or for adults, in a semi-public setting such as a sex club, dungeon or swingers’ retreat. But money changes everything.

The men’s petition in the November issue of the magazine Causeur was signed by figures including the novelist and editor Frederic Beigbeder, several journalists and columnists, comedians, actors and the lawyer Richard Malka, who has defended clients including the former IMF leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

The petition stated “some of us have gone, go, or will go to prostitutes – and we are not even ashamed”.

They added “everyone should be free to sell their charms, and even to love doing it.”

But feminists and the government expressed outrage at what they saw as the hijacking of the feminist writer de Beauvoir’s 1971 abortion manifesto in which 343 famous women, including Catherine Deneuve and Jeanne Moreau, admitted having had an abortion, something which left them liable for arrest. That petition, which the media later dubbed the manifesto of the “343 salopes” (s**ts or b**ches) helped lead to the legalisation of abortion in France.

"The battle for equality was won years ago," some say ~ usually with a dismissive air, like we should just get over it because it's ancient history.

It's not over, and even the things we 'won' are like those 40 acres and mules ~ not here yet.

We may have come a long way, baby; but we're not there yet. In my lifetime I've seen, heard, and read plenty. Sometimes it's laughable ~ until you realize that real people lived this way, causing your heart to ache, your stomach to churn, and your ire to rise.