Full Frontal Feminism

If you’re under a certain age, you can’t consent to sex. Period.

Pop culture is becoming increasingly “pornified.”1 As pornography becomes more culturally acceptable, and the more we’re inundated with sexual messages—most of which are targeted at younger women—the more hardcore these messages become.

expect everyone to abstain!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jessica Valenti is the founder and executive editor of the popular blog Feministing.com. An out-and-proud feminist, she has a master’s degree in women’s and gender studies and has worked with both national and international women’s organizations. In addition to blogging for Feministing, Jessica is a blogger for NARAL Pro-Choice America and a cofounder of The REAL Hot 100, a national campaign that aims to change the perception of young women in the media. Her writing has appeared in Alternet, Salon, Guernica magazine, and The Guardian. Jessica lives in New York City, where she was born and raised and is likely to never leave

One of the best things about feminism, in my opinion, is that you don’t have to be a professional feminist to take part in the movement. And feminism is something you can be involved in without dedicating your life to it. Granted, once you go feminist, it’s hard to look at the world in the same way—and that does affect your whole life. But just because sexism is pretty overwhelming at times, it doesn’t mean that taking action against it has to be.

So, ignoring the differences between women—whatever they may be—is hindering the women’s movement. Terribly.

couldn’t write about men and masculinity without at the very least mentioning militarization and war. They’re all too tied up with each other not to talk about it. Something superfucked up that will give you a good idea of why I’d feel remiss if I didn’t write about militarization: During the Gulf War (and who knows how many other wars), Air Force pilots watched porn movies before they went off on bombing missions in an attempt to “psyche [sic] themselves up.”8 Ugh. But that’s par for the course for an institution that relies on the feminization of the enemy as a way to dehumanize them.

Men are affected by sexism too, but it’s not often talked about—especially among men themselves. That’s where feminism should step in

This is partly because some women don’t even realize that they’ve been raped. I know that sounds bizarre, but it’s true. We’ve bought in to the whole guys-deserving-access-to-women thing, too. Some women think that if force wasn’t used, it wasn’t rape. Some women think that they “deserved” it. Or that they “owed” a guy sex. ’Cause he bought her dinner or something. I shit you not.

Because of their constant fear of rape (conscious or not), women do things throughout the day to protect themselves. Whether it’s carrying our keys in our hands as we walk home, locking our car doors as soon as we get in, or not walking down certain streets, we take precautions. While taking precautions is certainly not a bad idea, the fact that certain things women do are so ingrained into our daily routines is truly disturbing. It’s essentially like living in a prison—all the time. We can’t assume that we’re safe anywhere: not on the streets, not in our homes. And we’re so used to feeling unsafe that we don’t even see that there’s something seriously fucked up about it.