Feminist Carnival of Sexual Freedom and Autonomy #16
Feb 23rd, 2009 by Viviane
This sex positive carnival highlights posts/articles promoting the sexual rights and freedom of women:
This theory of feminism is known more commonly as Sex Positive Feminism, a movement that developed in the 1980s in response to feminists against pornography and prostitution. Sex Positive Feminists (or sex-radical, pro-sex or sexually liberated feminists) believe that women’s sexual freedom is an essential part of women’s autonomy. Any legal or social control or regulation over the sexual self is an attempt to control and regulate women, undermines their freedom and infringes upon their human rights. We are interested in promoting sex workers’ rights, sex education in schools, and we encourage the free expression of sexualities.
Sex Positive Feminists recognise that not all women choose to work within the sex industry and some are grossly exploited, so it is crucial to understand that sex work must be done consensually. Otherwise, it represents another form of control. We understand too that the opposite of sex positive is not necessarily sex negative. For more information about Sex Positive Feminism, click here.
The previous Carnival was hosted at Sugarbutch Chronicles. The upcoming Carnival will be hosted by Ellie Lumpesse. Please visit the Carnival homepage if you’re interested in participating in future editions.
Thank you to everyone who submitted. And now, on to this month’s posts.
Better Burn That Dress Sister: This is our job so recognise our rights…….
The adoption of the mantle of self righteous indignation by prohibitionists when they speak disparately of sex workers rights is both disingenuous and dangerous. They encourage the enforcement of bad laws now and support the adoption of more bad law with the intention, they claim, of protecting the vulnerable. If prohibitionists were honest they would admit that the intention of this bad law that denies sex workers rights, has nothing to do with protecting women and children or in stopping trafficking. The purpose of the persecution now, as in the past, is both to eliminate our work and alienate us from society. New proposals to criminalise clients and further target brothels are just more of the same.
Border Thinking on Migration, Trafficking and Commercial Sex: Will a famous prostitute be allowed to rest alongside Calvin in Geneva?
Grisélidis Réal was known for decades as a prostitute, author and defender of sex work’s uses and skills. She died and was buried a few years ago but now either will or will not be honoured by having her remains moved to a Geneva cemetery where cultural icons like Calvin are buried. The story below illustrates how such honours are interpreted in opposing ways by different people.
Clarisse Thorn: BDSM Outreach: “There is no ’should’” and the sex-positive “agenda”
What’s my “agenda”? What does it mean to be a “pro-BDSM activist”? What’s the “sex-positive agenda”? Who is part of the “sex-positive movement”? These are all questions I’ve been thinking about a lot lately — and they seem to constantly recur around the blogosphere, in varying forms. But here’s a question that’s rarely posed explicitly, and it’s the one that preoccupies me the most: What action can I take in the real world to help create a powerful, energetic sex-positive — and pro-BDSM — movement?
A Femanist View: On Art and Porn
I think we should reject that line, and insist that Porn is Art (how come the two brothers have never been seen in the same room at exactly the same time as each other? *smirk* ). Porn performers and producers, pole dancers and lap dancers, even (willing) prostitutes – yes, all sex workers – are artists and deserve to be recognised for it. Their individual arts are different from one another, just as a sculptor’s art is different from a painter’s, is different from a musician’s, is different from a dancer’s.
Feminist Review: AIDS Sutra: Untold Stories From India
Negar Akhavi has masterfully edited multiple voices and rhetorical devices to show us how HIV and AIDS have affected Indian society. Half the contributors traverse the deep faultlines of misogyny, poverty, and religious hierarchy. The other half shows what it’s like in India in the time of AIDS to be faithful wives and daughters-in-law (and HIV-infected), poor and low-caste, overburdened healthcare workers, cast-off and orphaned, and non-heterosexual.
Franklin Veaux’s Journal: Some thoughts on tattoos, porn, and respect for women
The term ‘tramp stamp,’ as clever as it sounds (“Oooh! It rhymes! It must be true if it rhymes! If the glove don’t fit, the tramp stamp sits!” Or something) betrays what seems to me to be a very interesting idea about women. It’s a short, simple, 21st-century slang term that packages sixteenth-century ideas about sex and sexuality in a handy, bite-sized piece.
Kidsanity: 14 Kids, 8 Babies, 3 Fingers, 1 Parent: The Math Of Nadya Suleman
What I saw was an articulate young woman who managed to keep her own anger at bay, who seemed understanding and forgiving of people who do not accept her decision, and was composed yet passionate as she tactfully mentioned her beliefs about the sanctity of life. But it was her earliest statements, regarding other large families, which seemed to lie at the root of all of the hullabaloo.
Paper Cuts and Plastic: Why I like to fuck in public
It’s much more about the juxtaposition of the normal around me with what’s going on in my pants. The fact that I can hear or see other people going about their day while I’m in the throes of sex makes me really hot. The vast difference between what I’m feeling and what everyone around me is seeing makes the sensations seem even more exciting and intense.
Relationship Underarm Stick: Puppies, Kittens & Vampires, Oh My!
The ultimate pinnacle in Bad Boys are vampires and other supernatural creatures. Not only are they dangerous and misunderstood, the big strong Bad Boy arms we want to swoon into, but there is no larger a separation than between living and dead, making these men the most unobtainable of all.
Renegade Evolution: Feminism, Sex, BDSM & Other Sore Subjects
I do not say everyone would, or should, or could enjoy what I enjoy. I do not expect, demand, or encourage them to do so unless it is what they actually enjoy. I do however encourage women to speak to and about their own desires, and damn the condemnation that comes with it…because I do think that is important, and I do think that- the speaking- is feminist.
Sabrina in Stockings: So I’m a feminist – and a misogynist?
It’s one thing to rebel against being spoonfed a stereotype as an ideal. It’s another thing to have obvious disgust for your gender (and most of these offending women are primarily gendered female, even if they do sometimes feel male inside; or at least, they express their gender as female).
Tell It WOC Speak
Welcome everyone to what I hope will be the first of many blog carnivals dedicated to the voices of women of colour and our allies. In every sphere of life women of colour are marginalized and exploited. Often, when we attempt to engage to change our circumstances we are silenced. This carnival is our attempt to give voice to our shared issues.
thank you so much, viviane. i’m glad more people will hear about griselidis!