Can't a woman enjoy her sexuality without being called a whore?

[LWolf]

265. I don't know.

I don't give a shit about Beyonce one way or another.

I think women should be able to do whatever the hell they want with their bodies without being shamed for it.

At the same time, I think a culture that values women primarily for their bodies is a sick culture, and too many men, at least in the U.S., fall into that category.

I was a precocious 12 year old; I developed early, and I learned early that males were never interested in me, just my body. I was conditioned to "enjoy" the attention, except when I didn't. I got attention from males of all ages, whether I wanted it or not. By the time I graduated from high school, I preferred to hide in shapeless clothing and blend into the crowd. I owned my body, and I protected it by hiding it. Only by presenting myself in as sexless a way as possible could I get people to take what I thought, what I had to say about life or the world, seriously.

As one man explained it to me, women are "life support systems for pussies." That's their value. In a world where there are men who think like that, why would I want to share?

I teach middle school. I spend all day, every work day, with young girls. Some are conditioned at home to think that their main job is to physically impress. As a matter of fact, we just contacted a mother yesterday to let her know that her 13 yo daughter was using her cell phone to send explicit photos of herself to a senior in high school, who texted back, "When do I get to hit that?" We know this, because she was sharing the photos and texts with her 12-13 yo classmates. Mom, when contacted, didn't see anything wrong with it. Maybe I shouldn't, either. I, though, have seen this beautiful, highly intelligent girl completely stressed out about bad hair days, about sweating through her makeup in gym where boys could see her; she spends more time worrying about what she looks like than she does celebrating her worth as a person.

"Showing our stuff?"

When our culture, including the male half, appreciates ALL the stuff, and ALL the bodies, without judgement, I can agree. Until then, I have reservations.