Monday, February 25, 2008

"I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it." - Harry S Truman

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Someone sent me: Feministe » Only Whores Orgasm (maybe because of the cute limerick), which criticised a columnist, Mike Adams, whose worldview apparently was that "if us ladies have the audacity to orgasm, or worse, talk about sex outside of the bedroom (missionary only, by the way), you are a harlot. Harlot!"

On first sight, this was a legitimate complaint against a guy who was for the suppression of female sexuality, especially since the original post wasn't there anymore and many other sites were bashing the guy.

Yet, digging up the original post brings some perspective. Although the paragraph where he used the word 'whore' was unfortunate, the rest of the article is not unacceptable.

Consider that UNC was going to set up an [female] orgasm festival with

"pin the finger on the clitoris" and "locate the g-spot" games followed by contests to see how quickly and properly people of both sexes can put condoms on bananas.

There will also be a "vibrator museum" showcasing various sex toys including - but not limited to! - an antique vibrator from 1924. And there will be a vibrator raffle and lots of information on masturbation, orgasm and contraception.


Now, the information dissemination is unobjectionable, but the games are quite explicit.

Imagine what it would be like if a male sexuality awareness festival was held with a pornography exhibition and Real Doll samples. What's more, there would be a "stroke the penis to ejaculation" games (a la Gunther's old Ding Dong Song flash game) and there a Fleshlight raffle.

The people in charged would be labelled perverts, and might even be subject to sexual harassment suits (one could argue that penis-shaped dildos/vibrators emasculate and objectify men by reducing them to their phalluses, humiliating and essentialising them blah blah blah).

One could always say that women are entitled to greater license because of a current lack of awareness of sexual issues among them, but information dissemination would be enough (and given that this is a college campus, I'm sure most of them are suitably liberated already).


This follow-up post, where he responds to a sexual harassment complaint, is hilarious.

"In order to file a complaint in the UNC system, the plaintiff must have very strong feelings. Feelings are the basis of every decision in our system. Logic and objectivity are irrelevant and probably sexist, too...

Recently, at “The Vagina Monologues” our campus feminists suggested that it is acceptable to call women “c**ts.” So, of course, had I really called them “whores” that would have been much better than calling them “c**ts” as the feminists would prefer."