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Feminists Shouldn’t Be Opposed to Sexiness
Both “Women Against Feminism” and certain young feminist women often claim that feminism requires you to refuse to be sexy or interested in physical beauty. “F*ck the male gaze,” say the young feminists. “I like it when men compliment me,” say the Women Against Feminism.
Feminism is about equal rights and empowerment. And if we want to be sexy, that’s our right.
Many an Internet meme has insisted that feminists are simply “ugly chicks who can’t get laid.” I think Emma Watson and countless other feminists prove that theorem wrong. Still, there is dissent within the ranks, as indicated when Emma Watson posed scantily clad on the cover of Vanity Fair. Some feminists couldn’t believe that Watson would “degrade herself in that way.” And sadly, many feminists also have a problem with me, for my submittal to the male gaze.
I am an ecdysiast, performance artist, and aerial dancer, all of which involve sexy performance while scantily clad. But I enjoy being sexy for everyone, not just men, and I don’t believe that my activism for reproductive rights or equal pay is diluted just because I’ve taken my clothes off in front of strangers.
I’m especially disappointed to hear shame assigned to those in the sex work and risqué entertainment industries coming from other women. Slut-shaming in everyday life has…
