Reading both sexing the body and a billion wicked thoughts causes me to wince when reading and make all sorts of faces that people watching me reading the books would find funny and intriguing. Reading sexual material is something I have always found to be uncomfortable but nonetheless very entertaining. I do not personally watch porn, but I do acknowledge it as a highly consumed product (if you could call it that?) and people I find myself to be in relationships often watch it, which I am okay with. Reading about all the kinky and squicky types of porn in a billion wicked thoughts makes me extremely uncomfortable but yet curious about these insane facets of human sexuality and personality, while sexing the body is more of an interesting interpretation of sex and the relationship of preconceived notions as well as social constructions and how they relate back to human sexuality. Anne Fausto Sterling makes very strong points, but in a way her tone is a bit of a turn off, while I think billion wicked thoughts is more pragmatist and easier to read. I personally gain more from a more data-style composition rather than a heated personal interpretation of reality. Billion wicked thoughts creeps me out in the sense that it is all data gathered from internet searches (people DO HAVE THE ABILITY TO TRACK US!) which freaks me out much like the recommendations in the sidebar every time I log into facebook.
Sexing the body takes a very interesting position about culture and its ability to shape the mind about certain stereotypes and archetypes that human personalities are supposed to fit into, and in some regards I really agree with her point and her strong purpose of writing this essay to educate society on the reality of gender politics and the social constructs of sexuality and personality, but I think she also needs to take into account other factors that play into human emotion and personality (remember the scene where Donnie Darko completely discredits his teachers ridiculous fear/love summation of all of human emotion?) and take into account all the other factors that influence people. It is hard for me to read one-sided opinionized accounts of anything because shutting out any potential details is detrimental to the scientific method when studying anything.
In some regards I strongly disagree with her ideas about gender and sexuality being purely a product of society when there is evolutionary evidence to suggest reasoning as to why men and women behave the way they do, such as big breasts being indicative of fertility, thus breeding innate attraction. It bothers me when staunch feminists give everything to prove that men and women are equal and their methodology to do this is to prove that they are the same. I don't believe that men and women are the same, but that doesn't mean that they cannot be equal. Women have more instinctive abilities while men win in physical strength. Being different doesn't discredit a gender to be lesser than the other.
These books make me uncomfortable, but it is a necessary discomfort because in order to better understand these facets of human personality and sexuality I need to force myself to be uncomfortable and take on these issues first hand to learn more about them.
I definitely had some of the same reactions reading A Billion Wicked Thoughts that you had (personally, I could have gone without knowing there was “granny porn”). I also agree with you that the Fausto-Sterling book is much more philosophical than the Ogaddam, but I really appreciate her candor. She explicitly states that she is a “feminist scientist,” allowing for transparency and so we can judge for ourselves if she’s simply being biased. In that way, I think she is being almost more “scientific” than Ogaddam, whose methods and background aren’t clearly stated in their book.
ReplyDeleteThat is a very good point I guess I didn't consider, for me I suppose the blatant and unqualified statements of statistics in Billion Wicked Thoughts are just consumed by my brain more quickly and easier, making it a more enjoyable read because it doesn't drain me mentally quite like sexing the body does.
ReplyDeleteI also, and forgot to mention, that I really liked your statement that just because the two genders are not exactly the same doesn't mean that they can't be equal. I too feel like hard-core feminists often come from the standpoint that to be equal is to be exactly the same, making their work more uncomfortable to read.
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