Author: Max Weidman
Progressive thought has always been at home in the liberal arts colleges of America. I take Occidental to be a proud and vocal example of this-we are an academic institution dedicated to raising awareness and formulating solutions in the various regions of what might be called ‘social justice.’ Amongst these, the topic of gender politics seems to be one of the college’s primary and perennial concerns. Because I presume our student body to be more-than-averagely familiar and enlightened in this respect, I would like to pose a question that is important for the entire population, but must be directed specifically at Oxy’s women: What’s with all the girl-on-girl crime?
My chief concern is with one particular facet of the so-called double standard, namely the quantity and quality of allowable promiscuity. I did not need to take a class at Oxy to realize that women are held to an impossible standard with regard to their sexuality. I recognize that women are made into Madonna/whore chimeras largely by men who “want a lady in the street but a freak in the bed.” I lament these conditions and make attempts to minimize my participation, though I often find myself slipping back into acculturated habits. What confuses me, then, is the seeming complicity of women in the system that makes their sexuality a matter of public censure.
I am close enough with a few girls as to have warranted frank discussion regarding these matters. What surprises me constantly is how many girls-who society would readily brand with a licentious name-apply those same names to other girls. I constantly hear women denouncing other women-whose sexual proclivities may be greater than, equal to or less than their own-as sluts. I am not completely unfamiliar with power structures; capitalism especially seems to pit the minorities it creates against one another. It has always seemed to me, as an observer, that women exhibit a more profound inter-competitiveness than men. Most men who move out of a circle of male friends seem to do so slowly, as a matter of circumstance. Women often seem to vilify and excommunicate each other in sudden fits of malice or spite.
It is likely that some of these observations are merely a product of my being an outsider, a voyeur into the world of female interaction. Perhaps women are far nicer to each other when boys aren’t around. What I urge, then, is a revolution in the way we think about sexuality. It seems evident that people will always be having sex with each other, in varying combinations, for various reasons and in variable frequencies. It seems incumbent upon us-men especially but women as well-to not impose standards we cannot ourselves conform to. I am more inclined to be envious than critical of women who engage in sex on their own terms and with their own tendencies in mind. I would not presume to psychoanalyze and argue that women who denounce other women for their liberal sexuality are similarly envious. But it may be so.
In Polk County, Florida, six teenage girls were recently arrested for savagely beating Victoria Lindsay, an acquaintance, after they invited her into one of their homes. The intention of the girls was to create a YouTube or MySpace phenomenon by filming the entire episode. Indeed it can still be viewed on YouTube. I could not possibly understand what it must be like to be a woman, nor what could have compelled these six girls to do what they did.
I ask women only this: I have heard your cries, your exasperation over navigating an impossible sexual dualism, the assault on your sexuality, which men always define as in excess. I have trouble, however, swallowing the conventional wisdom that this is entirely a product of the patriarchy. Am I wrong in thinking that you all are, at least in part, responsible? Do you not proliferate the standards you abhor when you call your fellow woman a slut? Is the increase in what I’ve called girl-on-girl crime only an increase in terms of visibility-or simply a product of a general trend in American violence? Finally, is there anything I can do?
Max Weidman is a junior ECLS major. He can be reached at mweidman@oxy.edu.
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