Blog 8
Koedt and Dworkin both address how patriarchy is extended into sex and sexuality. As Koedt argues, the physical act of sex serves no pleasurable function for a woman. It is meant for procreation, of course, but when it is recreational, it only serves to satisfy a man. Coital sex, as she argues, does not provide an orgasm for women, because it does not stimulate the clitoris. A “myth� is created by society though, that a woman does, or should have an orgasm. If she does not, she is frigid. It is the belief that there isn’t anything wrong with the design of coital sex, so there must be something wrong with the woman. Society blames the woman because it threatens an act that serves men.
Dworkin argues that the sole function of pornography is to degrade women. It supports a dualism, like Koedt contends, which steps on a woman at the expense of male desire/domination. Pornography makes sexual women whores. Not only are they whores, but they are brutalized and submissive to their male counterparts. Like Koedt, Dworkin asserts that a woman’s sexual needs are inconsequential, but takes it a step further by saying a woman who is sexual at all is made a harlot. Pornography makes tangible the cultural dualistic values of society, and she argues that it should be put to a stop altogether. What both women do not address is that women can enjoy both sex and pornography, so long as they are set up in a way for a woman to enjoy. The pieces are both somewhat dated though, so the sexuality of women today versus the time the articles were written is quite different. I feel that women today are granted much more sexual freedom and judged less than they were 30 years ago, so some of the arguments would not be valid in modern discourse.