tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039707457010939097.post2659040498896034261..comments2024-01-18T04:42:47.809-06:00Comments on BitterGrace Notes: Love and deathBitterGracehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18262639525430954930noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039707457010939097.post-13423078528710441892007-09-15T04:50:00.000-05:002007-09-15T04:50:00.000-05:00Certainly there are huge differences between count...Certainly there are huge differences between countries in the way the <I>state</I> regulates sexuality, but there's a great deal of repression and policing that happens extra-legally. And on that point, I'd say rape and sexual assault function as both sexual transgression and sexual repression. Wasn't it Brownmiller who called rapists the shock troops of the patriarchy? Rape and the threat of rape serve as excellent controls on women's free expression of their sexuality.<BR/><BR/>I'm not saying some cultures aren't more overtly repressive than others, and of course attitudes shift over time. But the fundamental distrust of the sexual impulse seems universal.BitterGracehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18262639525430954930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039707457010939097.post-58716644876671675382007-09-14T21:33:00.000-05:002007-09-14T21:33:00.000-05:00The Musuo may be a nice counter example. The way s...The Musuo may be a nice counter example. The way sexual behavior and expression is treated, is not only cultural specific, but also period specific. You'll find that documented in a host of books, as well as websites, like the suppressedhistoryarchives*.(the creation of patriarchy by Lerner, Sacred Pleasure by Eisler, etc.) And if you'd compare Scandinavian countries to Middle Eastern countries, not only are the differences truly humongous, it would be truly hyperbolic to speak of 'great cruelty' in terms of policies in these first mentioned countries.<BR/><BR/>Yet, it seems obvious to me, that sexual transgression is not a priori, per definition and under all circumstances innocuous, carefree play. I'm thinking of rape for instance, or incest. Up till recently does crimes went largely unpunished, as a matter of fact.<BR/><BR/>*http://www.suppressedhistories.net/Louhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07559427029026119650noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039707457010939097.post-48404711308304342652007-09-14T16:40:00.000-05:002007-09-14T16:40:00.000-05:00Well, Lou, I was trying to say--perhaps not very c...Well, Lou, I was trying to say--perhaps not very clearly--that I find it impossible to understand the issue <I>with</I> feminist and political analysis. Such analysis is useful when dealing with a particular social context, but my observation is that the tendency to vigorously police sexual expression does not seem to be culturally specific. It does take different forms in different cultures, but I don't know of any human society that has not punished sexual transgression, however that's defined, with great cruelty.BitterGracehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18262639525430954930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039707457010939097.post-20647830325025196842007-09-14T15:53:00.000-05:002007-09-14T15:53:00.000-05:00Some of our cultural behaviors aren't so universal...Some of our cultural behaviors aren't so universal as we are made to believe ('prostitution is the oldest profession'). Anything that is culture and time specific, probably isn't hardwired. Clearly, the range of behavior is within our possibilities; but it is just that, a possibility. Which choices we make is not solely determined individually, but just as much culturally. And these choices are also to a large extent dependent on gender, so indeed they are impossible to understand without feminist and political analysis.Louhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07559427029026119650noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039707457010939097.post-38771237176277945792007-09-10T17:53:00.000-05:002007-09-10T17:53:00.000-05:00I'd like to believe that's true, because then it c...I'd like to believe that's true, because then it could be banished. <BR/><BR/>Most of the time I think both our cruelties and our kindnesses are hardwired, and it's when we are negotiating between the two that we are most fully human.BitterGracehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18262639525430954930noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039707457010939097.post-29478064129311812042007-09-10T17:01:00.000-05:002007-09-10T17:01:00.000-05:00I agree that the world (with exceptions) seems to ...I agree that the world (with exceptions) seems to hate sex, maybe in proportion to how out of control of it they feel, and that womanhating springs from this fear/desire. Is this cruel streak hardwired, though? I don't think so - I think the fear/shame/hysteria about sex are taught, just as racism is.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com