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Pat Califia, _Public Sex_
Picked this up in the Parkway Center Mall of all places. It's a collection of Pat Califia's articles from 1979 through 1994. Her agenda is not just freedom of deviance, but radical change in society, since nothing less will change the way sex fits into it.
Her first article talked about her own practice of S/M at a time when it was taboo within the lesbian movement as violence against women, replaying abuse. Often she defends people who are marginal even within the margin, brings them into the realm of what can be talked about: leatherdykes, also transsexuals and intersexuals, men who have casual sex in the park, and NAMBLA.
She is all for porn, more and better porn, and writes about the anti-porn feminist movement and its alliance with the likes of Edwin Meese. She has educational articles about safer sex and political ones about needle exchange programs and drug policy. She has theoretical ones on the sexual geography of cities and the utopian future of whoring. She has personal ones about how she does S/M, why she cross-dresses, and what on earth she, a lesbian, is doing with her fist up a man's butt. She reports on kinks that never would have occurred to me: "There's even a new form of transvestitism appearing -- butches who like to be `forced' to dress up in feminine clothing." She has a wicked sense of humor. She seriously dismantles Juno and Vale's sex-cultural tourism in their Re/Search book about piercing and primitivism, and charmingly mocks pop sex shamanism.
What I found upsetting and thought-provoking were the articles on age-of-consent laws, pedophilia, and child pornography. Her argument is hard to summarize, and you should read it, but perhaps the core is that "Any child old enough to decide whether or not she wants to eat spinach, play with trucks, or wear shoes is old enough to decide whether or not she wants to run around naked in the sun, masturbate, sit in somebody's lap, or engage in sexual activity." We mostly accept that sex play between children is not a problem unless the parents make it into one; she argues that contact with older people is not so different, and that we can outlaw victimization without making criminals of innocent people.
Her example of a gay teen who has fled his family and chooses to make a new one involving a man over the age cutoff is a pointed example, an ethical goad. Probably most people agree that in some instances the laws are wrong, but we take that as a necessary evil. Califia points out that on strict ethical grounds, even one wrongful imprisonment is indefensible. She lists many people more than one who have been entrapped or otherwise fallen afoul of broad child-pornography laws, including publishers of opinion articles. She points out that the slogan "every piece of child pornography is a record of abuse" is not tautological for any substantive definition of "abuse". The discussion of NAMBLA makes me aware that they shouldn't be dismissed as a bunch of kooks.
I can support lowering age-of-consent laws, or giving the "victim" a veto on prosecution, but I can't see doing away with them. Well, frankly, it squicks me, but I also think the idea is predicated on a much broader sexual revolution and emancipation of minors, and ought not to come first. Califia's response to the question of power imbalance is that "Loving relationships provide ways to cross barriers, forge alliances, and redistribute power," which I just don't find germane. A particular relationship may exploit power, not redistribute it. I suppose her response would be that you should outlaw the exploitation, then.
In the introduction, she mentions Internet sex and censorship as a hole in the book. I'd like to see what she's written since.
Her first article talked about her own practice of S/M at a time when it was taboo within the lesbian movement as violence against women, replaying abuse. Often she defends people who are marginal even within the margin, brings them into the realm of what can be talked about: leatherdykes, also transsexuals and intersexuals, men who have casual sex in the park, and NAMBLA.
She is all for porn, more and better porn, and writes about the anti-porn feminist movement and its alliance with the likes of Edwin Meese. She has educational articles about safer sex and political ones about needle exchange programs and drug policy. She has theoretical ones on the sexual geography of cities and the utopian future of whoring. She has personal ones about how she does S/M, why she cross-dresses, and what on earth she, a lesbian, is doing with her fist up a man's butt. She reports on kinks that never would have occurred to me: "There's even a new form of transvestitism appearing -- butches who like to be `forced' to dress up in feminine clothing." She has a wicked sense of humor. She seriously dismantles Juno and Vale's sex-cultural tourism in their Re/Search book about piercing and primitivism, and charmingly mocks pop sex shamanism.
What I found upsetting and thought-provoking were the articles on age-of-consent laws, pedophilia, and child pornography. Her argument is hard to summarize, and you should read it, but perhaps the core is that "Any child old enough to decide whether or not she wants to eat spinach, play with trucks, or wear shoes is old enough to decide whether or not she wants to run around naked in the sun, masturbate, sit in somebody's lap, or engage in sexual activity." We mostly accept that sex play between children is not a problem unless the parents make it into one; she argues that contact with older people is not so different, and that we can outlaw victimization without making criminals of innocent people.
Her example of a gay teen who has fled his family and chooses to make a new one involving a man over the age cutoff is a pointed example, an ethical goad. Probably most people agree that in some instances the laws are wrong, but we take that as a necessary evil. Califia points out that on strict ethical grounds, even one wrongful imprisonment is indefensible. She lists many people more than one who have been entrapped or otherwise fallen afoul of broad child-pornography laws, including publishers of opinion articles. She points out that the slogan "every piece of child pornography is a record of abuse" is not tautological for any substantive definition of "abuse". The discussion of NAMBLA makes me aware that they shouldn't be dismissed as a bunch of kooks.
I can support lowering age-of-consent laws, or giving the "victim" a veto on prosecution, but I can't see doing away with them. Well, frankly, it squicks me, but I also think the idea is predicated on a much broader sexual revolution and emancipation of minors, and ought not to come first. Califia's response to the question of power imbalance is that "Loving relationships provide ways to cross barriers, forge alliances, and redistribute power," which I just don't find germane. A particular relationship may exploit power, not redistribute it. I suppose her response would be that you should outlaw the exploitation, then.
In the introduction, she mentions Internet sex and censorship as a hole in the book. I'd like to see what she's written since.
no subject
One of the editions of Coming to Power by SAMOIS (it's a leatherdyke collective) has a butch-feminization story like the one you describe. I want to say second, but I'm not completely positive. Could be the third.
no subject
Now Patrick Califia-Rice, right? I'd like to find a copy of her book Sex Changes (which I think was written as Pat Califia still).