The sexual revolution led to increased male sexual access to women and a "porn-saturated culture" that "empowers young males" while disempowering women.
Where I think she's wrong is in framing abortion as the cause of this sexual revolution and, consequently, the cause of men coercing women into having anal sex. In a paragraph that reads as a re-hash of one of those anti-gay screeds about how "homosexual behavior" causes Gay Bowel Syndrome, Gallagher opines:
"Anal sex in particular is a response to our porn-saturated culture, in which young men are increasingly viewing images of anal sex with women and asking their girlfriends for it. Women have less sexual power than they did even a generation ago. When it comes to our sexual mores, young men rule the roost.
Anal sex is painful, unsanitary, unsatisfying for women and creates unique risks for serious physical diseases (if you doubt me, go read the Wikipedia entry on the subject) because the anus is not designed for sexual intercourse, increasing the risk of torn flesh and the intermingling of bodily fluids—blood, semen, fecal matter—that can spread an astonishing variety of diseases. The female partner is far more at risk than the man in these encounters. This should be a feminist issue."
Okay. Fine. If Gallagher, who I've rarely heard talk about feminist issues and in fact espouses sexist essentialist views, wants to slap that trendy I'm-a-Conservative-Feminist button on the lapel of her jean jacket and start setting our feminist priorities, I'm not going to tell her she's not a feminist.
But here's the difference between her feminism and mine.
Maggie Gallagher's feminist way of dealing with the pornification of women is to (a) suggest putting restrictions on private sexual behavior between adults and (b) to punish the "unempowered" women who live in our rape culture by putting restrictions on their bodies.
My feminist way of dealing with the pornification of women would be to try to counter all of the recurring patterns in our culture that tell us that women are the sex class, existing primarily for the sexual enjoyment of men.
Unlike Maggie Gallagher's apparent position, I refuse to accept the proposition that sex is the natural and everlasting state of womankind.
PS- Abortion. Not really like slavery, btw.
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