boy i’m tired of seeing a constant refrain on ‘progressive’ posts that says like ‘well as long as it isn’t sexualized’, as if anything sexual is obviously bad. cross-dressing’s okay if it isn’t sexualized. queer characters are okay if they aren’t sexualized. dancing is okay if it isn’t sexualized. murder is okay if it isn’t sexualized!
and people keep using the term sexualized as if it’s just the same thing as objectified, as if being sexy makes you less human. because that’s what we’re all taught, right? sluts aren’t people. pervs aren’t people. but it’s bullshit.
sexuality is not an inherently dirty, damaging, wrong, toxic, stupid, or frivolous aspect of human experience and human expression. coercion, violence, and dehumanization are what hurt people, and they hurt people in plenty of nonsexual ways too. treating people like things— seeing them only as objects to gratify you— is wrong no matter what.
sex is a crucial element in a lot of people’s lives. sexuality is a big part of a lot of people’s identities. it’s not something we can ignore or devalue. if we continue to insist that sex is inherently bad and damaging, we’re going to continue seeing sexual people as bad and damaged, and that is antithetical to any truly progressive cause.
“sex positivity” was a mistake. it’s not being utilized in a way that lets people (especially young girls, people of color and lgbt people) have proper access to information about sex and STDs, consent, or rape culture but instead it just promotes a “fuck whoever you want whenever you want and never think about the consequences!” mindset. it leads to a lot of minors making god awful decisions and then regretting them later with nothing they can do about it. it leads to “being open about your kinks is progressive!!!!” which in turn ends up with men pressuring women into violent sex and saying that if she was a #Real sex positive feminist, then she’d have sex with him how he wants her to.
sex positivity should’ve been used to promote education of safe sex, to lessen stigma around sex (especially between sga and trans individuals), to give sex workers a voice, to spread proper information about STDs and prevention and treatment, and to teach about rape culture and consent. but as with most movements like this all it ended up being was a red lipstick and black heels “fuck the patriarchy” type thing while doing literally nothing progressive! and of course i’m not saying there’s nobody who does this, but with the way the sex positivity movement has gone, i doubt these people have the energy to try and have a loud enough voice in a community spewing the opposite of the message that should be gotten across.
Cadet-For-Your-SpaceRescue 