Hello, BlogHer!
Well, we’re here – at the Navy Pier for the start of the BlogHer conference. Right now most people are doing this “speed dating” introduction thing, but Rusty and I opted out because it’s just way too damn social. I know I should probably be taking this opportunity to force Sex 2.0 MOO Cards on people, but I just can’t handle it. So, instead, I’m doing what my T-shirt says I’m doing: blogging this. The wifi here is great, the schwag bags are amazing… well, generally everything is amazing so far.
The best way to follow me today will probably be Twitter, but even with that i don’t know how many updates I’ll be posting, since my top priority will be having fun, participating, and all that good stuff.
We had breakfast with AAG, Viviane, RKB, Susan Mernit, and a few other people whose names I can’t remember. Last night we had dinner w/ Viviane, RKB, Susan, Cunning Minx (who called me “perky and adorable” – ha!), and Lisa Williams. I’ll post photos when I get a chance!
So far I think Chicago is a great city. One thing we learned: there is apparently a shuttle from the Orange Line train to Navy Pier. We did not know that, and instead spent $75 on a cab this morning. Oh well, live and learn. It was the cab driver who told us about the shuttle, actually; and he was a really nice guy, he and Rusty had a grand old time talking about sports. So it could have been much worse.
Okay, that’s all for now… off to enjoy! :)
I loved you once, I think
Well, the Village Voice has replaced Rachel Kramer Bussel’s “Lusty Lady” column with one called “Married, Not Dead.” Hooooo boy, that sounds thrilling! I don’t know about the rest of you, but when I pick up (or click on, more accurately) the Village Voice, what I want to read about the most is the status quo! Hey, I wonder, is it difficult being a married upper-middle-class woman with kids and trying to find time for sex with your husband? I wonder! I ponder the question all the time, in fact! And you know, I would really love to read about it every fucking week!
To sum up this absurdly stupid move on the part of the Voice, I defer to Blackamazon:
The Village Voice has strapped on the skis and leather jacket and is sailing over the shark with an EH! in it’s heart.Lusty Lady the sex column was replaced with …………………
A column featuring over priviliged women complaining how the can’t fuck with the nanny in the house. And life is so hard with the housekeeper… and blah blah OH FOR FUCKS SAKE.
On a tangentially related note, BA wins the prize for today’s Awesome Quote of the Day (this would be the opposite of the having-a-category-of-its-own Bullshit Quote of the Day):
[W]e constantly regress into trying define acceptable sexuality rather than create safety for creation of consensual sexuality.
Right the fuck on.
Example #4,592,1875 of people needing to own their shit
As per usual, Rachel Kramer Bussel makes a helluva lot of sense in her latest Village Voice article (“Feminism and Fucking”), and she pulls no punches. So you can understand my surprise when I saw Amanda’s response at Pandagon.
What has happened to Amanda? For a long time she has been one of my favorite sex-positive feminists because of her no-bullshit eloquence, but lately I’ve observed her inching closer and closer to the radfem camp. What’s up with that? Is there a secret handshake that gets one on the radfem payroll, and I’m just unaware of it? Or, is her mind elsewhere and she honestly missed the blatant sarcasm in Rachel’s statement, “We can choose to be celibate or to have someone come on our face.”
The Pandagon post smacks of a deliberate misreading and contorting of Rachel’s words – something that I’m used to seeing Amanda skewer others for. I feel so let down.
The one part of Rachel’s article that I do take issue with is the reference to “choosing to be [a sex object] under certain circumstances,” because I think “sex object” is not the right choice of words in that case, and is in fact contradictory. This is why I think it’s important that we come to an understanding of a common vocabulary if we’re going to have any sort of constructive dialogue among feminists. But, that’s a tangent to be expounded upon at another time. My point is, overall I think Rachel’s article is awesome.
Anyway, read both pieces, and decide for yourself. I’ll leave you with some words of wisdom from Rachel’s article:
I encourage all men and women to make the sexual choices that are right for them, regardless of what’s “cool.” I can’t tell you how to fuck. Instead of looking to gurus, activists, porn stars, and how-to books, you’d be better off looking inside, spending some quality time with your fingers around your cock or pressed against your clit figuring out what sets you off. Forget about the judgments of your friends and neighbors (who are probably just as wild in the sack as you are).
Seriously, how in the world could anyone (short of a Godbag) argue with that?