The Feminist Fellatio Kerfluffle

You know why West Texas is so windy?? 'Cuz the East sucks; while the West blows." -- (From a bumper sticker seen by me on I-10 going towards El Paso around 10 years back)

Ahhhh...nothing like a thermonuclear debate to start the weekend, no??

I'm sure by now that you have heard of the Cat 3 hurricane of a debate that was formed yesterday over the not-so-warm oasis of Twisty Faster's I Blame The Patriarchy blog over her personal disgust of blowjobs, as well as her belief that any woman liking such action is inherently a slave of Teh Patriarchy and should turn in her feminist card right away. Well, by this morning, Hurricane Hummergate had exploded into a certified dangerous storm, tearing a course through the feminist blogosphere, ripping apart presumptions and assumptions of unity and peaceful harmony amongst women....and all that because Twisty just got bored and wanted to stir stuff up.

Now, not being a woman and not having experienced the joys of a blowjob (not even a bad one), I'd normally not be one to intervene and offer my sympathetic voice in this debate amongst feminists. Being a sex-pos radical who believes in women's right of free will and choice, and her unmitigated right to seek and give consensual pleasure, on the other hand, I admit to be fascinated and amused by this not-so-small rumble.

For those who care and those who missed the fireworks, here's a summary:

1) Twisty, feeling bored and her occasional need to stir the pot, posts a screed about the absolute horror of blowjobs as a tool of Teh Patriarchy; she goes on and on about why any feminist or any self-respecting woman would dare resort to such a "fucking gross", disgusting, yucky thing as to put a "funk-filled bratwurst" in her mouth. She opens her blog for those who do hummers to defend themselves.

2) Several prominent feminist women take up Twisty's challenge and defend their right to be feminists while liking bj's, saying that their personal enjoyment of such activity should not affect at all their beliefs as feminists. A few even portray their particular skills at giving head as "liberating".

3) This really pisses off Twisty, who decides in her follow up post to tear the bj supporters new ones, essentially labeling them as slaves to Teh Patriarchy who are allowing their clits to get in the way of their ultimate submission to Teh MAN. And then, as a means of backing up her crusade, she does the seemingly impossible task of trolling her own blog (using the pseudomym Poffin) to declare that since bj's are automatically degrading and obscene and the ultimate surrender to TEH MAN, any woman who should dare defend her right to give fellatio is merely a "patriarchial sexbot" who should be retrained in rightful radicalfeminist education.

4) The debate explodes from there, with Twisty getting backup from other radfem stalwarts like Ginmar, Sam (remember her from the Stan Goff blog trashing of Nina Hartley???), and "Poffin"; and other feminists recoiling in disgust to Twisty's bait-and-switch antics.

5) Meanwhile....Amanda Marcotte -- self described "porn liberal" -- decides to make an attempt to square the circle and defend Twisty's antics while sympathizing with fellatio fans in a series of posts at her Pandagon site. Don't blame her for stirring shit up, sayeth Amanda, and besides, she does have a legit point about patriarchy controlling women's decisions. After all, all choice is an illusion in a society where men oppress women. That creates another firestorm there, which consumes three threads of the same debate.

Most of the response of the pro-fellatio crowd has ranged from general missives in defense of the act to the simple retort of "Blow me, beeyatch, I am my own woman and do not need your fucking permission to choose my sexuality." On the other hand, there are the more rounded and theoretical responses (see the irrepressible Bitch Lab for a nice, long deconstruction/personal narrative). For this sexrad feminist 'Dog, however, this debate reveals far more why radicalfeminism as a ideology is so late and so far short when it comes to reducing human sexuality to the essense of male rapicity and female weakness/submission.

In Part 2 of this thread; I'll elaborate a bit more. Just watch this space....

UPDATE: Oh, this is great...Heart of Women's Space decides to get her licks in (no pun) in in support of Twisty, moaning about how outnumbered the "antis" are, and how it's really all about genuine feminists challenging male supremacy. Right....and transsexuals really are men invading women's space, ehhh???

Like I said, my rebuttal to all this is forthcoming.