The patriarchy is an ecosystem, like racism is an ecosystem. Are you doing work that feeds the ecosystem or chips away at it? We are not all obligated to be doing this work 24-7. In fact, no one can meet this standard. My objection is to the “choice feminism” construction. “If I choose it then it is feminist because I…

But I’m talking about doing work that feeds a patriarchal machine in a very potent and specific way. I don’t expect every woman to be a perfect feminist. I’m just not interested in pretending that every choice a woman makes is ipso facto making the world better for women.

Sure. So you’re doing what you have to do to get by. Who here is perfect? But do we have to pretend that the work is furthering the cause of women’s rights? Why?

Another thought: You absolutely have the right to make choices for yourself that don’t further the feminist cause. I make choices for myself that don’t benefit the environment. I could always be doing more to fight racial injustice. I should be vegan and I’m not. So why do you need to call your sex work feminist? You…

YES.

“I am female and I am making a choice under duress and the fact that I’m making a choice at all makes it feminist.”

Agreed on all points.

p.s. I can disapprove of someone’s choices without marginalizing them. My original post simply said that I don’t buy the “stripper choice feminism” construction.

I understand your point, but I’m not moved by it. Yes, you can be a feminist and a stripper, just like you can be concerned about global warming and still eat hamburgers. No one would say that eating hamburgers is a great choice for the environment, and no one is going to convince me that molding your body to a male…

That baffles me. Being in an intimate relationship with the member of an oppressed group—heterosexually, transracially, etc— can be the surest way to foster empathy and understanding. Many men are “converted” to feminism through their relationships with women. With most sex work (not all), the woman is being paid to…

Not when the beauty standards are exactly the same as the ones defined by men.

Sorry, I’m so over choice feminism. If there is no baseline in the fight for equality, then feminism means nothing. Enjoy porn if you want, but I don’t call it progress. And “owning sexuality” is a weak argument, imo, when the sexuality that’s being “owned” is tightly conscribed by the same old patriarchal norms. Does…

You’re a good guy.

Isn’t that what they call a ballet or dance performance? Think the difference is in the throwing of dollar bills while yelling, “Show me yer tittez!” Pretty sure that’s it.

There’s an ocean of difference between admiring someone, thinking they’re hot, wanting to have sex with them....and throwing dollars at their bodies.

THANK YOU.

I’m so sick of that bullshit.

Wow. Of all the lame “feminist” justifications for stripping, “If men are gonna objectify women, it’s only right that women demand to be paid for it” is the lamest. Write your book, give good advice to your fellow strippers, stay safe and healthy, express yourself. But you can’t participate in the objectification…

I don’t judge Caitlyn Jenner for drifting away from Kris Kardashian, or even Kris’s first batch of kids, given that they’ll side with her in the breakup. But you don’t get to “drift away” from your kids. You work and work and work at the relationship until you fix it. Because you’re the parent and they’re the kids.

This is where you suck. You are so focused on the damage society has done to YOU that you can’t even grasp the extent of the damage that society does to females (or, as you say, cis women). You believe yourself to be at the top of the oppression pyramid and that cis status makes the rest of us privileged princess who…