Feminism Is For Everyone

Oct 9, 2008,2:37 PM

A Great Post from Feministing

Today a really interesting post came up on Feministing as a reply to the HUGE backlash within the conservative blogosphere re: Jessica Valenti's new book (which hasn't even been published yet, heh).

Her book is called "The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women" (cover image at the bottom of this post, so pretty!!) and will come out in April 2009.

The post at feministing shows a list of excerpts from irate/disgusted bloggers who say that her book is all about being "slutty whores" and claiming it as proof that The Feminist Movement hates purity and looooooooves sleeping around. HOWEVER, as Jessica puts it so aptly,

"What I find most interesting about Fiano and the other posts is that they're the ones who are talking about 'sluts', 'whores' and women being promiscuous. (In fact, one of Fiano's classy commenters suggests that I'm promiscuous and that's why I wrote the book.) The book cover says nothing about sex, promiscuity or the like - they make that jump. Why? Because for conservatives and purity pushers, the only alternative to being a virgin is being whore. There's no in-between for them, there's no complexity or nuance when it comes to sexuality. And that's why I wanted to write this book."

I really had an "a-ha!" moment when reading that--because it's entirely true. Jessica's stance is that the pressure put on young women to be "pure" (lest they become SLUTS!!!! WHORES!!! LADIES OF THE NIGHT!!) creates unhealthy attitudes about sexuality. And I think that's a really good point! Because there are certainly numbers on the spectrum of sexual partners between "none" and "dozens"!

So, check it out, and laugh at the stupid people!