The Sexual Freedom of Women

In my dorm building an RA put on a program called “Sex in the Dark” where both male and female residents could sit in a dark room and ask the opposite sex any question they had, in hopes to get a truthful response. The questions ranged from, “What’s your favorite sex position?” to “How many partners have you had?” One question asked by a female, was about how often the boys in the room masturbated. This was one of the questions that boys were not uncomfortable when answering. I did not think anything of it until I read for class on Wednesday.

When reading Sexual Surgery in Late-Nineteenth-Century America (Section Four, Reading D) by Ben Barker-Benfield, I found out how doctors use to mutilate women’s genitals so they could not enjoy their own sexual pleasure. Men feared that women would lose their sexual appetite if they were allowed their own sexual freedom.  The surgery was even performed to cure women’s mental disorders. The discrimination against women is very evident by males restraining women’s sexual freedom.  This article also highlights how even though women’s masturbation is frowned upon, men’s masturbation is seen as being the norm. Although we do not perform these surgeries in our culture today, women’s masturbation is still being repressed while men’s masturbation is not unheard of topic.

I do think the RA’s had good intentions when creating this program. It opened the doors for new discussions and conversations that maybe wouldn’t have happened otherwise.  But at the same time, I saw women hesitating when it wasn’t necessary. During “Sex in the Dark”, the conversation was centralized on the guys and their sexual experiences. The females of the group spoke very little and when they did they often got judging looks for being so open. Although women and men are seen more as being equals than back in the days of genital mutilations, women still feel the need to repress their opinions about sexual situations for fear of judgment.