Archive for the ‘Sex’ Category
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Reflections on the Cis/Trans Binary
01 May 2013
This is the third in a series which started by looking at gender, then followed up by looking at sex. This post looks at the assumptions of a cis/trans binary and its implications, an issue which has had a particular focus in the third wave, as transfeminism brings new challenges …
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BD/SM and the Sexual Reification of Patriarchy (Part 2/2)
14 Apr 2013
Part two of a two part series (part 1), this post explores patriarchy, power, violence and female sexuality, arguing that a BD/SM is not unproblematic, but as a reification of patriarchial sexuality it may be beneficial in making explicit the power dynamics and violence which exist in a less extreme …
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Reflections on Sex
29 Mar 2013
The role of sex is a preoccupation of both the second and third waves of feminism. In the second wave, the discrimination that women faced on the basis of their biological sex, was starting to come to the fore of public consciousness with increased access to legal abortion, reliable free …
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Objects & Subjects of Sexual Desire
23 Mar 2013
Guest Post from Davy Marzella One biological purpose of sex is the fertilisation of an egg by sperm to produce offspring and propagate the species. Presumably this is a main evolutionary reason for the impulse to be sexual. Though very few people have sex exclusively and solely for this purpose. …
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Rape and the American Right
14 Mar 2013
Abortion, welfare and gun control are major preoccupations of the American Right. The right to potentially kill people is sacrosanct, and allowing children to starve is fine, but attempt to end the development of a zygote, embryo or foetus and you are an evil murderess, which must be compelled …
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Redefining Rape: A dangerous development
06 Mar 2013
This blogpost comes with a trigger warning as I understand that there are a group of people who are upset by this discussion continuing and would not wish to read anything more about it. Consequently, I would suggest that anyone who personally affected and is likely to be upset by reading further stops reading …
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On the EUSA Scandal
02 Mar 2013
Now Athens is a long way from Edinburgh, and I am a long way from being a student, but I inadventantly stumbled across a scandal going down at Edinburgh University Students Association. What got me interested initially was a valiant attempt by the Equal Rights and Liberation Officer trying to point out to misogynistic …
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Sexual Violence and the Greek Left
14 Feb 2013
Article also available in French As anyone who reads this blog, particularly the updates from Greece will know, this is incredibly difficult time in the country's history. The veil of democracy which hides an authoritarian and despotic government is threadbare, and the rise of an openly fascist party, combining thuggery …
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Disability and the Sex Industry
02 Feb 2013
The recent changes to the benefits system in the UK have seen masses of disabled people thrown off disability benefit. In some cases leaving them to cope with the demands of jumping through the hoops of job seekers allowance and others seeing them cut off benefits entirely. In such a …
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Rape and Community Response
25 Jan 2013
The recent scandal in the Socialist Workers Party has reignited a lot of issues around rape within radical communities, and more generally. One of the themes raised by this issue has been the establishment of a kangaroo court which exonerated the accused. Commentators have questioned both why the police were …
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Are you a potential prostitute?
09 Jan 2013
Well, are you? Not sure? Well - now you can check. Some nice kind people have set up a website where people can report "potential prostitutes". No I'm not linking, but it ain't hard to find. The premise of the site is that people feel "threatened" by online prostitutes. …
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Why don’t we just ban sexual abuse?
07 Dec 2012
The BBC ran a story today that 200 Women's Rights Groups are calling for an all out ban on the "right" to sexually abuse people in exchange for payment across the EU. Sweden led the way in this in 1999, and since then fewer men are coercing women into sex from …
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Female: A hetero-masculine discourse?
16 Nov 2012
A previous post on "Social Constructions and Biological Differences", generated quite a bit of discussion, which I found genuinely fascinating, having thought some more about some of the issues in what was quite a fast moving interaction, I wanted to pick up on some of the points made. It took …
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A response to critical feedback
14 Nov 2012
The blogpost that I wrote back in February, on "What is Rape" has generated some quite considerable controversy. Much of the discussion has taken place outwith this blog, on other forms of social media and I find my views repeatedly misrepresented by others in such forums. As I am continually …
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On Political Lesbianism and the Cotton Ceiling
12 Nov 2012
I was recently described by a man of my acquaintance as having "lesbian thinking" - I think he meant feminist. While lesbian is often thrown out as an insult to women who are not sexually attractive, or sexually available to men, the conflation of lesbian and feminist is all too common and not …
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Prostitution as work: implications of legalising an industry
07 Nov 2012
Discussions over the status of prostitution have raged over the past few years. The current position in Scotland is that activies surrounding the sale of sex are illegal under the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, however the purchase of someone for the purposes of sexual gratification is perfectly legal. Internationally …
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Social Constructs and Biological Differences
05 Nov 2012
Feminism has been thrown into turmoil by the challenges raised by the third wave. One particular area of challenge to traditional feminist thinking is the rethinking of gender particularly in the light of the increased visibility of trans*, and the theoretical backing given to it by Judith Butler as probably …
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On Strong Sisters
01 Oct 2012
Regular readers may have noted that the blog has been down for a little while, while I effected a re-location to Greece. It was a sudden decision, but a move that I had been thinking of for a good time, and if not now, then when? It was not only …
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Sluts, Shame and Social Media
26 Sep 2012
Online misogyny is nothing new. When I first ventured onto the internet in the mid-90s I learnt very, very quickly to always use a male name in IRC, and never identify as female unless I wanted a whole load of creeps hitting on me. Girl gamers report the same thing …
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Rape, Regret and Rosie Dodd
20 Sep 2012
Rape has been in the news of late recently quite a bit: genuine rape, real rape, legitimate rape, forced rape, rape of an unwilling victim, it would seem that every politician on both sides of the atlantic these days wants to make a public statement simultaneously telling people how terrible …
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So you want to outlaw abortion, eh?
08 Sep 2012
I've been listening to them there folks over in the States. It would seem they have a bit of an issue with abortion. Their arguments seem to base themselves around the rights of potential persons. Perhaps before we look to upholding the rights of potential persons, we should first look …
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Socialist Unity: Cesspit of the Left
07 Sep 2012
Those familiar with the state of the UK left will be familiar with the Socialist Unity blog, the cesspit which has taken over from the UKLN email list as the place for old white men to put the world to rights. It must be the most misnamed blog in the …
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Consent doesn’t have to be enthusiastic
06 Sep 2012
The concept of consent has been in the news recently with the Assange case, Galloway and Akin comments. In the West, most rape is perpetrated under conditions of pre-existing relationships, and most issues over the justification for a rape being perpetrated tend to come from the conditions under which a …
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Rape: Heteronormativity and Ethnocentrism
29 Aug 2012
The issue of Rape has been all over the news this month, what with Assange, Galloway and questions raised over what comprises "legitimate rape". In a previous blogpost, I looked at exactly that issue: "What is Rape". The previous blogpost was written in response to chancing across an article promoting …
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Are We Surprised?
22 Aug 2012
Guest post from Laura McKeon Are we surprised? The left creates heroes of men like George Galloway, then feigns shock at their chauvinism. I see his comments as part of a wider network of sexist beliefs that are shared to a lesser or greater extent in different sectors of the …