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GOOD_VIBRATIONS

                                                             December 23, 2014
                                                             February 19, 2015
                                                             February 20, 2019
This entire controversy seems pretty peculiar: if it
were just a group of men that were confused about how
women's bodies react, that might be understandable         A_BRIEF_HISTORY_OF_SEX
(though you know, it's not as though straight guys
are *uninterested* in female sexuality...), but isn't
it profoundly weird when you get a group of *women*
arguing about how women's bodies work?  Don't they
just know this?  But evidently human sexual responses
are a little more complicated in the female than
male-- and it could also be that the American
puritanical streak was getting in the way on this one.

(A resonable method is "just mess around and see
what you like", but if you're hung up about "messing
around" you might never get there.)

This was part of the mission of the new generation
of pro-sex feminists that I associate with San          I used to think of this
Francisco in the 80s.  The sex toy store "Good          as the "third wave" of
Vibrations" was originally a feminist collective: it    feminism, but everyone's
bothered them that many women didn't know how to        understanding of the
have orgasms, particularly when it didn't seem like     boundaries of the waves
men had this problem.  They weren't just a "novelty     seems so confused I've
toy" store, they were dedicated to creating a place     given up on them.
where women would be comfortable learning about
sexual techniques-- the staff at Good Vibrations              WAVICALISM
were more like sexual counselors than just sales
people.

    Susie Bright talks about this period
    in some of her writings.


The 70s feminism seemed summed up by the slogan "The
personal is political".  For them, nearly anything you
might do has great signifcance, and it's important to try
to live in just the right way, to set a good example and
help bring about The Revolution.

The pro-sex feminists of the 80s placed a great deal
of emphasis on individual freedom-- their standard
advice was summed up in the slogan "Get over               The long form was
yourself".  Their insight was that stressing out           "Get over yourself
about the proper application of feminist doctrine in       and start having
your life can be a strange kind of egotism-- the           orgasms."
world simply does not turn on every choice you make.
Playing with sex toys doesn't make you a traitor to
the cause of equal rights.

The goal of the feminism that grew out of San Francisco
in the 80s was to expand the ways that women-- and not
only women-- were allowed to be.


   
The San Francisco-based magazine "On Our     
Backs" that was founded in the mid-80s was         A very funny title:
full of things like lesbian bondage porn made      there's a classic
by women for other women to look at.  In a         socialist publication was
time when people were still struggling with        called "Off Our Backs".
the concept of "lipstick lesbians", this was  
a very mind-bendy phenomena.                 
                               
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipstick_lesbian

Compare that to the image of the lesbian couple presented
by the George Segal sculpture "Gay Liberation". It
portrays a generic image of lesbians circa 1970: they're
dressed in a casual/sloppy manner in blue jeans and
simple, loose shirts, they look braless, and they have
Very Serious expressions on their caucasian features.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_Liberation_Monument


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