In a world where feminist backlash seems to have reached new heights, many writers-both male and female-have shied away from discourse about sexism. Some argue that conversations about sexism stymie opportunities for men and women to transcend divisions brought into being by the gender binary. Others maintain that androcentric philosophies have been displaced by ideologies and praxis predicated on parity between the sexes, thus rendering conversations about female oppression unnecessary and antiquated. Despite these arguments however, statistics about sexism prove that the social problem is alive and thriving with the ugly authority of a dictatorial regime posing as a democratic government. Because this is the case, writing about sexism’s offspring-rape, domestic violence, unequal pay for equal work, and the objectification of female bodies-is still important and necessary.
While there are many writers who have discussed the reality of sexism in the sort of profound and provocative way that generates discussions and opportunities for social change, critical theorist Camille Paglia has a uniquely efficacious and unparalleled way of exploring patriarchal paradigms that makes reading her work both informative and entertaining. Personally, I found her commentary regarding the dark side of pageants particularly astute. In discussing the competitions, she stated: ”These pageants mark a deep sexual disturbance in the society, a cannibalizing of youth by these vampiric adults.” Here, Paglia inverts the conventional understanding of parental roles in the world of pageantry. Rather than rendering these adults supportive individuals who contribute to the psychosomatic development of their children, Paglia argues that they prey on the young female participants and-like vampires-suck the life and light out of them. In making this statement, Paglia reinforces the reader’s understanding of how sexism-which takes the form of reducing women to objects in the world of beauty competitions-is propagated by parents who teach young girls that becoming a sexualized spectacle for others is an acceptable and advantageous endeavor. Additionally, her use of the phrase “cannibalizing of youth” to describe what this process of eroticization entails underscores the notion that pageants transform thinking humans into consumable goods, thereby increasing the reader’s awareness of the dehumanization that transpires in realms where young women become primarily bodily beings.
In my own life, I have tried to make the ugly realities engendered by patriarchal paradigms integral to the work I produce. In my poem “on (somewhat) consensual sex,” for example, I discussed how sexual intercourse can become a psychologically painful enterprise when female subjects sense that they have been reduced to sport. To underscore this theme, I defined the completion of the sex act-and the female subject’s understanding that her male partner viewed it as a game-as “a sordid sort of checkmate” (l.8-10). In so doing, I underscored a salient social reality that buttresses sexism in American society-the patriarchal world view that deems bedding women an athletic enterprise or recreational pastime. The sexism indigenous to such ideations is rooted in the notion that-instead of viewing women as fully human entities with both cognitive and corporeal dimensions of self that warrant sustained attention and appreciation-female subjects are primarily bodily beings to be discarded after a sexual conquest is realized.
As indicated earlier, sexism is not a historical reality that has no place or space in our contemporary world. Rather, it is an extant ideology which continues to negatively complicate existence for both the men and women subject to its reductionist rules and regulations. For this reason, it is advantageous for progressive writers to continue exploring the depth and scope of its ugly import.
Related Articles From Jocelyn:
Writing Tips: Should Your Book Cover Make Your Story’s Theme Plain?
Writing Tips: Using the Natural Elements to Create Mood
Writing Tips: Two Ways to Handle Rejection
Jocelyn Crawley holds B.A.’s in English and Religious Studies. Her work has appeared in Jerry Jazz Musician, Nailpolish Stories, Visceral Uterus, Four and Twenty, Dead Beats and Haggard and Halloo. Other stories are forthcoming in Faces of Feminism and Calliope.
