Quintessentialist

The more I think about things, the more in-depth I try to go with my writing, meaning symbolism, extended metaphors, expressing the unpopular opinion, etc. Is it too much; am I becoming too radical for the taste of this blog’s followers? Let me know.

While you’re at it, try this on for size:

Women, especially young women, are often valued in conjunction with their sexuality. For example, an increasingly popular event called the “Purity Ball” features girls as young as eleven pledging to stay pure until marriage. To complement (or vitiate the accusations of a double standard), the founders of purity balls have introduced “Integrity Balls”, in which young men vow not to defile someone’s future wife. Again, the aim is the preservation of a woman’s “greatest gift”, not the man’s. This belief assumes that a woman has no value outside of her sexuality - no matter how successful her career may be, and no matter what she contributes to her community. A woman can not escape the dogmatic patriarchal values reminiscent of The Feminine Mystique: stay pure, marry, then “close your eyes and think of England”.

Men are given, on the contrary, every opportunity to excuse themselves of hyper-sexualization. In rape culture, the common excuses are: she asked for it, she didn’t say no, her skirt was too short, etc. Some commentators on rape culture (notably The Washington Post) even suggest that rape is a fictionalization constructed by women who have either been too intoxicated to say no (which, apparently, is the equivalent of consent) and are entirely responsible for their tragedies. Or, they are too promiscuous, and as punishment, deserved it. By instilling these excuses in our cultural environment - wanton women, intoxication, feminine passivity - rape culture burgeons, and it further promotes the idea of conservative sexuality in relation to women.

And therefore, to all naysayers of feminism, understand this: Our work has only just begun.