If you're a submissive you're opressed. And stuff.

I found this article the other day when I was trolling Google after the Facebook/BDSM fiasco first started making the rounds in here (most of it is quoted in this blog)-
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/thinking-kink-female...

My first thought was, "Well fuck. No wonder female submissives have issue with submission if that's the shit they're being told."

My second thought- Or, OK, maybe it was like my 30th thought after a bunch of stuff that required a lot of cuss-words, eye-rolling, and general disdain- Was, "There is something seriously wrong with a ideaology that's supposed to be about empowering women to live a life that fulfills them when it says what fulfills you is 'WRONG'."

Seriously, wrong. Here's a quote from the article-
But is the reactionary media's tendency to seize on any excuse to dismiss female empowerment reason enough for women to avoid sexually submissive behavior, or at least fantasies of it? Norma Ramos thinks so: "I'm getting sexual pleasure from [submission], so what do I do about this? You work to change that. You have to challenge it," she says. For some feminists, the only answer to a pervasive culture of sexual violence is for women who enjoy playing the sub to rewrite their fantasies.

If you're having hot, sexy, submissive thoughts you need to stop it.

Now granted, I'm not always that firmly in touch with reality, but even I can grasp that there is a significant amount of difference between a bit of consensual play and "Violence against women." Pretty much that whole consent thing...

But wait, the article has an answer for that as well!

What of choice though, the concept simultaneously heralded and cursed by feminists? For some, choice is meaningless if it occurs in a system of oppression. Diana Russell dismissed the "consent defense" when she wrote about BDSM pornography: “Boiling candle wax was dripped onto a bound woman’s breasts. Had she consented beforehand? Even if she had, this is a violent act.” For anti-BDSM feminists, there can be no true choice in “responding to a model of sexual interaction that has been drummed into us throughout our lives.” Furthermore, by agreeing to play a sexually submissive role, a woman is actively damaging feminism by "reinforcing the legitimacy of power imbalances outside the bedroom.” (Nichols, Pagano & Rosoff as quoted by Margot Weiss.)
See? You can't consent to a violent act because you've been oppressed. Yeeeeeah... Basically you're too stupid and unenlightened to realize what's good for you. Good thing these folks have no problem telling you what that is.
Oh, and furthermore, if you do consent (which you can't really do, what with the oppression and all), you're "actively damaging feminism."

Yeah. They said it, "Damaging Feminism." How the actual fuck does someone damage another person's ideology? Do they get a Shrink-o-Matic, make themselves really tiny, crawl into another person's brain and chip away at it with an equally tiny pick axe? Or are these folk's personal convictions just so weak that by challenging them with another set of behaviors those convictions will crumble like a saltine hit by a sledge hammer? I do not get it. At all. But that might just be because I'm stupid and unenlightened and oppressed and shit.

Man, I guess that's what I get for joking about "setting the cause back 100 years..." someone took my snark seriously.

And OK, maybe I'm all oppressed and crap because I like guys. What about chicks who like chicks? That's got to be cool, right? They've thrown off the yoke of male sexual oppression because well, they're chicks. If a chick wants to play sexy games or have a D/s dynamic with another chick and there's no dudes in the picture, that's got to be cool.
(BTW, if you think I'm oppressing you by using "chick" feel free to replace it with whatever female adjective floats your boat. I just like the way the word sounds, plus, whenever I write it I get to go "peep" in my head which amuses me)

Not so much it would seem:

Lesbians who practiced BDSM didn’t escape condemnation either. As Jocelyn Borycszka puts it in her forthcoming book Suspect Citizens, they were accused of simply replicating “the very masculine power dynamics used to perpetuate women’s oppression.”

I guess if you're a girl who digs other girls but you like being the one in charge you're still oppressing your partner because you're acting like an Evil Man. Eeeeeeeeevil. Because dudes oppress chicks (peep), it's what they do. ALL OF THEM. Down with the male regime! Viva la vulva! Err... Anyways, you can't like being the D-type if you're a girl because then you're acting like a guy, even though you're a girl... So wait. Are you oppressed, or oppressing?

Ok, now to try and make this out-pouring of snark into a cohesive piece of writing-

I have no doubt that there is still a word of issues that need to be addressed concerning violence against whoever experiences it no matter what their gender, creed, color, belief-system, etc. And I have no doubt that there is still a lot of education necessary within the BDSM community so that the people within it can play safely and experience healthy relationships no matter what side of the slash they fall on...

But here's the kicker Uber-Feminist Crazy Ladies- By attempting to dictate what another woman is or is not allowed to do with her body or her life, you have become no better than the people and social constructs our Fore-Mothers battled against when they got us the right to vote, access to birth control, jobs in male dominated work places, so on and so forth. You have become the very thing you claim to despise, The Oppressor.

News Flash: Oppression is Oppression no matter what gender is doing the oppressing.

It's not women in consensual relationships that are "damaging Feminism" it's you. When you argue against our right to live the life that brings us fulfillment and joy you are no better than the society that would have kept us barefoot and in the kitchen, unfulfilled and longing for something more. I find it a crying shame that you are so set against anything but your notions of what is right *for you* that you refuse to see that your path is not the only one a woman should chose to walk.