Comments on: To Run the World, Power Up Feminism http://www.fem2pt0.com/2009/05/11/to-run-the-world-power-up-feminism/ society’s issues + women’s voices Wed, 28 Jul 2010 01:10:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Madama Ambi http://www.fem2pt0.com/2009/05/11/to-run-the-world-power-up-feminism/comment-page-1/#comment-6137 Madama Ambi Tue, 12 May 2009 15:01:24 +0000 http://www.fem2pt0.com/?p=981#comment-6137 Hi Gloria--I agree with all of your exhortations (in the best sense of the word), and I still think that you can do all that and leave patriarchy...uh...intact...We need to see the invisible...we need to seriously question some of our most basic assumptions about categories, roles, relationships... The most basic, imo, is sexuality. Why is sexuality tied to marriage? Let's just start there, the most basic building block of patriarchy. Why is marriage the box to contain and proscribe sexuality? What does this structure support? What does it prevent? What are the real stats on marital fidelity? Is it bad to be raised by a single parent, or just a single parent stressed out and living in poverty? Or, parenting while black? Or Hispanic? I just read The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power and the Future of the World, by Michelle Goldberg, published 2009, Penguin Press. Not much of it was news to me, but she has gathered a lot of evidence to argue her case, and when you are done reading that book, you will understand that women's sexuality is a pawn in a huge, global power game. We women have yet to determine what sexuality means to us as a group or as individuals, nor how we would structure our world in order to support our needs. That conversation has yet to happen, as far as I know. This is the conversation I was suggesting to you, Gloria, that should happen in the most public sphere we can arrange--Oprah! I don't know if Oprah is brave enough to take this on--I don't watch TV, so I really don't know. She might lose all of her advertisers...see what I'm saying here? We can't even discuss it on daytime TV...what's wrong with this picture? yours Madama Hi Gloria–I agree with all of your exhortations (in the best sense of the word), and I still think that you can do all that and leave patriarchy…uh…intact…We need to see the invisible…we need to seriously question some of our most basic assumptions about categories, roles, relationships…

The most basic, imo, is sexuality. Why is sexuality tied to marriage? Let’s just start there, the most basic building block of patriarchy. Why is marriage the box to contain and proscribe sexuality? What does this structure support? What does it prevent? What are the real stats on marital fidelity? Is it bad to be raised by a single parent, or just a single parent stressed out and living in poverty? Or, parenting while black? Or Hispanic?

I just read The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power and the Future of the World, by Michelle Goldberg, published 2009, Penguin Press. Not much of it was news to me, but she has gathered a lot of evidence to argue her case, and when you are done reading that book, you will understand that women’s sexuality is a pawn in a huge, global power game. We women have yet to determine what sexuality means to us as a group or as individuals, nor how we would structure our world in order to support our needs. That conversation has yet to happen, as far as I know.

This is the conversation I was suggesting to you, Gloria, that should happen in the most public sphere we can arrange–Oprah! I don’t know if Oprah is brave enough to take this on–I don’t watch TV, so I really don’t know. She might lose all of her advertisers…see what I’m saying here? We can’t even discuss it on daytime TV…what’s wrong with this picture?

yours
Madama

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