I'm sorry, I phrased poorly. I meant to say, not so much forbidden actions, but instead "women shouldn't do X because X is merely a symptom of their oppression," and pointing out that some women like to do X is explained away as further sign of their oppression. Say, if a woman actually likes cooking, or wants to raise children instead of pursuing a career. Obviously, if she wants a thing like that, then she's not really a feminist, just another victim who isn't capable of understanding the Truth. (Did I express that more clearly this time?)
And I actually have a lot of sympathy for the argument that the ideology of voluntary participation hides a lot of actual coercion and also reinforces some terrible societal patterns, even if I ultimately think that we usually should take someone's word about her actions being voluntary.
I agree with both parts of this. It's sort of like when someone first explained the concept of "agency" to me as it's most commonly used regarding the modern world*: people can make decisions, but sometimes their decisions are limited to only bad choices that they probably wouldn't make in other situations. (Emphasis on "probably," especially in a sex-positivity/sexual agency discussion.) I think it's possible to respect someone's right to choose without forgetting that their choices might be otherwise in a world that wasn't so shitty.
*(Interestingly, I mostly hear the word "agency," especially when talking about women, used in a modern connotation to talk about all the ways that women don't have it; historically, I mostly hear it used to talk about all the ways that women had more than people think.)
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Date: 2011-12-21 05:04 am (UTC)And I actually have a lot of sympathy for the argument that the ideology of voluntary participation hides a lot of actual coercion and also reinforces some terrible societal patterns, even if I ultimately think that we usually should take someone's word about her actions being voluntary.
I agree with both parts of this. It's sort of like when someone first explained the concept of "agency" to me as it's most commonly used regarding the modern world*: people can make decisions, but sometimes their decisions are limited to only bad choices that they probably wouldn't make in other situations. (Emphasis on "probably," especially in a sex-positivity/sexual agency discussion.) I think it's possible to respect someone's right to choose without forgetting that their choices might be otherwise in a world that wasn't so shitty.
*(Interestingly, I mostly hear the word "agency," especially when talking about women, used in a modern connotation to talk about all the ways that women don't have it; historically, I mostly hear it used to talk about all the ways that women had more than people think.)