demisexual apologism in light of un-radical bullshit
No wonder the term “demisexual” caught on — in a culture where your radicalness is measured by your sexual availability, your openness to sex with every gender and body type possible, your embrace of poly relationships and kink; a culture in which each dimension by which you’re oppressed awards you extra buttons to pin on your sidebar; no wonder an expression of perfectly “normal,” perfectly “boring,” and even, you could say, “under-sexed,” sexual attraction — packaged as the new radical oppresssed™ group — caught on. No wonder people spun out theories of “sexual privilege” and claimed “queer” as theirs too, because oppression is the way to cool points, and instead of challenging the horrific mess that is the dominant culture’s view of sexuality, find any way possible to distance yourself from heterocisvanillamonogamouspatriarchy, and you’re safe. You can cling to your status as a marginalized person without ever having to challenge the assumptions of the dominant culture or the radical subculture(s) that both thrive on hierarchies. Hierarchies are at the heart of the dominant culture — as much the life-blood of civilized society as oil is of modern globalization — and it is an utter shame that radical communities, in their eagerness to break down dominant paradigms, instead of smashing anything, slapped their hands together and set about creating a sort of reverse of the hated paradigm. A firmly established hierarchy, just upside down (but to tell the truth, it’s very often not even that upside down at all). A “subversive” hierarchy does not subvert power, not any more than a Democratic win restructures the political system of the United States. Come on, kids, let’s rethink radical and recreate sex positivity.
Yo, I agree. All of these sub-categorizations of sex and sexual activity and making them seem like oppressed groups are pretty ridiculous. Just cause it’s a little “different” doesn’t mean that someone is really infringing on your rights to have whatever kink you have or don’t have.
