Welcome to: April OPeel's Blog

http://www.feminisms.org/?p=1626&preview=true

February 10, 2011

Here is some food for thought. Since you have brought us back to the topic of feminism and the reason you write this blog, I will try to challenge your perception of feminism vs. mine and perhaps others who have come out in support of Burlesque in response to your ‘review’.

You say

‘As I’ve said before, many times, the feminist movement is here to challenge patriarchy, not applaud blindly simply because we are told something is empowering’.

Okay, let us examine what exactly ‘is’ the feminist movement.

None of us would argue that the feminist movement has made its best effort to free us from the chains of patriarchy, but we are all acutely aware that this struggle continues to rage on throughout the world, regardless of the gains we’ve seen, we still have to fight for reproductive rights every time a right wing, conservative pro-life government gets elected because their agenda is still to take us back to the dark ages based on a religious ideal. So, please don’t think for a minute that I don’t appreciate what it must be like in countries where religious, sexual and physical restrictions are the norm. We haven’t come that far, and we have a long way to go. This much we can all agree on.

I’ll be honest, I am aware that I personally haven’t done enough to fight for womens rights in my lifetime, and have even taken it for granted. But I certainly have done a lot for myself and my personal belief system and proud of that fact. Having to reconstruct what it is to be a woman and blazing trails by being an open hearted woman in touch with my femininity, sexuality and humanity is No easy task. I consider myself probably in the third wave of feminists, having been born in 1964 and watching my mother break stereotypes and taboos. I am lucky also that my father was part of the feminist movement here in Vancouver in the seventies.

As a young person I took it all for granted and paid very little attention to feminism until my late twenties when I got a brain and stopped being so self centered. Back then I viewed feminism as being quite radical, unfeminine and almost nasty to the male of the species. It was a huge turnoff for me and it turned me against it for many years. There are personal reasons as well in relation to how my father was treated by those radical feminists friends at times because he was berated for just being a man.

So, how could I reconcile that I liked cute dresses, dancing, shaving my legs and looking pretty with trying to be a feminist when I had no feminist icons I could relate to. I disliked the thought I had to be less girly in order to be a feminist. So I chose to be ambivalent towards to whole subject until I was ready to appreciate and understand it on my own terms. I will probably never buy into the idea of Radical Feminism because I view men with very little power as having the same human struggles against the power elite (white, rich, religious, conservatives can be male or female eg; Ann Coulter), so I can’t lump patriarchy onto all men, there are plenty of women buying into it as well.

I personally like the term Sex positive Feminism, and perhaps this might aptly describe what my respected artist friends are trying to relay in response to your blog and what I myself believe.

————snip

Clipped from Wikipdedia.

Sex-positive feminism centers on the idea that sexual freedom is an essential component of women’s freedom. As such, sex-positive feminists oppose legal or social efforts to control sexual activities between consenting adults, whether these efforts are initiated by the government, other feminists, opponents of feminism, or any other institution. They embrace sexual minority groups, endorsing the value of coalition-building with members of groups targeted by sex-negativity. Sex-positive feminism is connected with the sex-positive movement.

The cause of sex-positive feminism brings together anti-censorship activists, LGBT activists, feminist scholars, sex radicals, producers of pornography and erotica, among others (though not all members of these groups are necessarily both feminists and sex-positive people). Sex-positive feminists reject the vilification of male sexuality that they attribute to many radical feminists, and instead embrace the entire range of human sexuality. They argue that the patriarchy limits sexual expression and are in favor of giving people of all genders more sexual opportunities, rather than restricting pornography (Queen, 1996). Sex-positive feminists generally reject sexual essentialism, defined by (Rubin, 1984) as “the idea that sex is a natural force that exists prior to social life and shapes institutions”. Rather, they see sexual orientation and gender as social constructs that are heavily influenced by society.

Sex-radical feminists in particular come to a sex-positive stance from a deep distrust in the patriarchy’s ability to secure women’s best interest in sexually limiting laws. Other feminists identify women’s sexual liberation as the real motive behind the women’s movement. Naomi Wolf writes, “Orgasm is the body’s natural call to feminist politics.”[2] Sharon Presley, the National Coordinator of the Association of Libertarian Feminists,[3] writes that in the area of sexuality, government blatantly discriminates against women.

————- unsnip

So we may differ on the idealogy of Feminism, and perhaps we do approach it differently than you.

But in creating this blog/dialogue, I would say that you are making us all think, encouraging us take up the call to arms in a new wave of feminism. But feminism in itself encompasses so many ideologies and differences of opinion. I am proud of my young friends who speak so eloquently on a subject they are passionate about.

Yes, we as humans really need to fully understand political, socioeconomic, racial, religious and generational positions if we are to succeed in a substantial way in the future. All women have a stake in feminism, but so many women cannot promote freedom for themselves because survival is all they can do day to day. Hard to look at the bigger picture when the world you see is abject poverty, religious tyranny, abuse, recovery from abuse or racial bias.

And in case you are wondering, this 46 year old mother of a teenage boy started performing burlesque 2 years ago to do something fun for myself and discovered that it changed me profoundly. Acceptance of self and of others is at the heart of the burlesque movement today, and it is the reason I continue to embrace and support this art form and in turn it embraces me. I do not fit into the youthful, perfect ideal of a sexual object – I mean seriously I am middle aged and feel it sometimes. But I am also a very sensual and creative woman with an ability to communicate through my art form. My dance experience from a very young age, and my interest in costumes and design have shaped my personal interest in Burlesque as an art form more than anything, and I do enjoy pushing boundaries and titillating audiences.

Being a burlesque performer, a nudist, and polyamorous lover I am fully engaged in my own body and it means I have never felt more accepted in my life, because I am finally able to accept myself. I have been tipping the scales of my sexuality for years and I feel more comfortable being real and I can finally accept that I fall somewhere in the middle of the Kinsey Human Sexual Response scale. 10 years ago I would have been terrified to admit that to anyone and continue to live with those natural sexual responses in my head telling myself I was weird and it was wrong to be attracted to both men and women. It no longer feels wrong, and that for me is freedom. Freedom from the past of being molested at age 12, raped at 19 and 22, verbally abused by my spouse, and left to struggle in poverty as a single parent. We all have our path, and mine led me to burlesque and a pan-sexual lifestyle.

And truly, Burlesque is just another form of artistic expression – it just happens to be risque and taboo – what is so wrong with that?

Might I suggest you acquire a sense of humour and give burlesque another twirl and try to see it from a less staunch perspective. You might actually have fun and laugh a little.

But, I will say this; I respect your opinion because that is your perspective. There are many sides to the feminist movement and if you are subscribing to fair and honest reporting, you could perhaps acknowledge that there are other views on feminism from far right to far left. You are very articulate and you are lucky to have an education that gave you an opportunity to learn about womens issues in a institutional setting. I would love to ‘get’ feminism, and in my 46 years – I think I have a fairly broad understanding of it, but I don’t know everything, and I do know that we learn what we learn when we come to it. And we come to it at different times and for different reasons. You are lucky to be immersed in it and to have it be your lifes work, but I wouldn’t put violent porn or sex trafficking in the same category since we are choosing to pursue burlesque and not being forced into it.

… and one more thing…. yes, the male gaze when not in context can be intimidating, feel degrading and even dangerous, so I am not disagreeing with you there – I just happen to think the the male gaze is not all bad. Given the advent of Playgirl, Chippendales and female produced porn, I think we should give men a break for finding us attractive, since we clearly have adopted their tack in modern media where every man looks ripped and hairless – and we are now holding them to that standard. I personally like hairy men, but I don’t see it represented in the media, but I can always get my fill of a normal hairy paunchy boylesquer any given weekend in East Van… and I will cheer when they expose themselves to me!!!

signed

J Valery Vyntage