Sexuality and Lesbian Feminism - Essay Example

Rather than fall all over herself to appear charming and attractive to a member of the other sex, a woman will do well to just be herself and cease pretending to be something she is not. And if men feel threatened and turn on the truly liberated woman en masse, such men are simply not worth the ground she walks on. This document is particularly important in a world where women are oppressed under the burgeoning pressures of sexual freedom.Charlotte Bunch: Lesbians in RevoltThis document focuses on lesbian-feminist politics, as heralding the end of a male-dominated society.

It denounces heterosexuality on the grounds that it perpetuates the oppression of women as it is essentially male-centered. According to Bunch, lesbianism is a political choice that entails protecting the rights of women. She emphasizes the need for lesbians to become feminists and vice-versa in order to destroy the fabric of a male-dominated society that is cruel to women in the extreme. Sexism propagated by men drunk with power is an evil that needs to be dealt with an iron fist. Heterosexuality undermines and eventually sunders the bonds of sisterhood; therefore lesbianism is the true threat to male supremacy.

Radicalesbians: The Woman-Identified WomanThis document explores the nuances of lesbianism as it were and as it is. Society has assigned women with a particular sex role and woe-betide any woman who dares to step outside this role. The backlash is instant and cruel. Terms like "lesbian" or "dike" are used to scare women into toeing the societal line. Women have been conditioned into accepting a subservient role and subconsciously accede to the primacy of the male. While this state of affairs persists, the "dehumanizing" of women will proceed undeterred.

Therefore it is important that women deal with this insidious influence before embarking on the journey towards self-realization.Anne Koedt: The Myth of the Vaginal OrgasmThe vaginal orgasm does not exist. Koedt reiterates this fact in her article. Women are accused of frigidity if they are unable to achieve orgasm in this mythical manner. Koedt derides the fact that a woman's sexuality is defined "in terms of what pleases men". She stresses the need for a perspective that respects the needs of women.

The world need not be viewed only through a man's eyes.Kathie Amatniek: Funeral Oration for the Burial of Traditional WomanhoodIn this piece, Amatniek talks about submission and the role it has played in the oppression of women. From time immemorial, it appears that men held women under their thumbs, only because they managed to persuade women by dint of threats and flattery that it was better this way. The docile traditional woman allowed herself to be deceived, thereby dooming womanhood to centuries of subjugation.

Thus Amatniek says before dealing with exploitation and aggression, it is important we bury submission.