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A week ago, in the context of a discussion on some NYT article, @2rafa commented that “there is an unstated (on the progressive side) premise among all people that casual sex is a bad deal for women and devalues or dishonors them in some way”. It generated a few replies but basically no further discussion, even though I’m sure it’s worthy of further discussion, and here’s why: as far as I’m aware, it’s certainly not the case that progressives had this attitude from the beginning of the Sexual Revolution, which is what the context is here. Obviously they used to have a different view in general, but sometime along the way, they changed their minds, because things turned sour, essentially.
Before continuing I think it’s important to qualify, as 2rafa also did, that other ideological groups also share this basic view, but the two main differences are that right-wingers tend to state this view openly, whereas progs are usually reluctant to do so, and that they do so on religious and moralistic grounds, whereas progs concentrate on women’s individual long-term interests, not on any other considerations.
So anyway, I said to myself: surely these people, being progressives, believe that the Sexual Revolution, while a laudable event, went haywire at some point, and didn’t bear the fruits it was supposed to. And I can tell that this is a relatively widespread view, because I can see it expressed in various online venues all the time, not just this forum.
What went wrong then? What did the Sexual Revolution basically promise to average progressive women, and why did that turn out to be a lie?
I’d argue that the more or less unstated promise of the Sexual Revolution to young single women was that: a) they will be sexually free without inviting social shame i.e. normalized sexual experimentation and promiscuity on their part will not have an unfavorable long-term effect on men’s attitudes towards them, and women will not sexually shame one another anymore b) they will be able to leave their constrictive gender roles to the extent they see fit, but this will not lead to social issues and anomie because men will be willing to fill those roles instead i.e. men will have no problem becoming stay-at-home dads, nurses, kindergarteners, doing housework etc.
And none of that turned out to be true.
Am I correct in this assessment?
Where do you see this view expressed, that isn't at the very least "post-left"? My impression is that getting a progressive to acknowledge something went wrong with the Sexual Revolution is like nailing jello to a wall. Even if they agree that current sexual dynamics are unhealthy, they can't bring themselves to put the blame on the Sexual Revolution. It's still patriarchy, internalized misogyny, or what have you. The revolution has not gone far enough! If you admit things in the past might have been better in any regard, that would imply we might need to roll some things back, and be more careful with future changes - we can't have that!
IMO, it's not even that, it's "The Wall wasn't built to keep women locked in, it was built to keep men out". "Sexual freedom" isn't in women's interest because they aren't unrepentant coomers the way men are. If The Wall falls, it is women who will find themselves pressured to do things they don't want to do, not men (see also: my recent anecdote on the "third date is when you sleep with the guy" rule, and the post that provoked it). Gender roles are more tricky, but I think even there what I said applies. Sure, they might be restrictive, but at least half of the reason they were there was to give women a domain they can rule over according to their preferences, so they don't have to deal with men's bullshit.
Mainstream progressive (i.e. sex-positive) feminism is happy to acknowledge that women are not getting off on the casual sex available post Sexual Revolution - they just blame men for it rather than reconsidering whether the Sexual Revolution was a good idea.
Indeed. Very obviously they will not even address the Sexual Revolution, as such. They will pin the blame on the male sense of entitlement, toxic masculinity, consumerist pop culture etc. But that's not the point.
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