"Sex positive feminism:" the Eternal Saga

Here's why it really matters to me, okay.

Off a conversation at Bitch | Lab's: I said, in response to whether "sex positive feminism" could legitimately be considered a theoretical branch in its own right, like socialist feminism:

Amanda had had that article about “major in feminism, minor in sex pos.”

but, I dunno if any of the actual sex positive -feminists- per se have written extensively about root causes of this or that, no;

but if one sees Wilhelm Reich as an ideological ancestor of the sex-pos movement, (feminist and otherwise) which I do, then a lot more clicks into place.

essentially, it’s the idea that sexual freedom matters -not- just because it’s part of individualism or expressing oneself or even cocking a snoot (ha! i love archaic slang) at outdated patriarchal sexual mores;

it matters because the erotic impulse is an incredibly powerful source of energy. if you don’t use it one way, it’s gonna pop out in another.

authoritarians have known (to whatever degree of consciousness) about this since time immemorial. There’s a reason why “patriarchy” is so emphatic about sexual repression. It’s not just taboos based on primal existential fears (although no doubt that’s part of what started it, and that’s always there); and it’s not just a nefarious plot to keep people miserable or even distracted from the “real” issues.

It’s a way of harnessing energy.

Magic, in other words.

in the case of mass movements like fascism, malign sorcery. all those brooms stand up and march, march, march…

Which is not how Reich puts it, of course. And I think Reich oversimplified a lot; he was a product of his time. There are other physioemotional energies that matter as well; the neo-Reichians and other somatic psychologists have a more integrative approach (not to mention a far less hetcentric/sexist one).

but, and I learned this organically through my own experience of internalized homophobia:

you can’t shut down one part of yourself and expect the rest to be unaffected.

teach people to become disconnected from their own bodies and desires and you can fill them with pretty much whatever crap you want to.

This is why “my body belongs to me” is so fucking important.

It’s not about the Meaning of the Womb or the Phallus or whatnot; that’s there, but it’s also more reification after a certain point.

It’s because what they call the “still small voice” in religious/spiritual circles, wherever its ultimate source, comes--I have found--from within.

and while erotic bodywork, getting touch with your own feelings and emotions and sensations is probably not sufficient of itself to get back in touch with that, it’s a key part and a damn good start. I’ve found.

One way or the other: if you don't reconnect to that voice? You'll forever be at the mercy of someone else's. One way or another. Some someone. Maybe a series of someones.

Someone who knows you better than you.

Someone who can tell you exactly what you need...for your own good.