I have a question regarding Susie Bright

Question

I keep coming across this name in different places and I am a bit puzzled because I don't find her to be very relevant. She appears to be some kind of s*x expert and that is all well and good, but that really doesn't make her a great feminist figure. She claims to be someone who's made a great contributions to the movement by liberating women sexually and believes she's really fought hard to make this happen. However, I find her to be a bit misguided. I especially think she misrepresents a lot of Andrea Dworkin views. Dworkin was never anti-s*x. She never said all heterosexual s*x is rape. But this woman, Bright, and her ilk keep propagating this nonsense about earlier feminists. Feminists were never s*x-negative. Maybe a few radicals, but I don't believe anyone hated s*x. Quite to the contrary feminists have always advocated sexual fulfillment for all women. Maybe, I'm mistaken. Can someone clarify for me, why I should be so thankful to Ms. Bright?

Answer 1

Compared to the views of many anti-feminists and non-feminists-your views are very positive towards Andrea Dworkin.Since feminists had already been labeled by some of the media as man-hating lesbians-Andrea didn't help the feminist media image much by fighting pornography and joining forces with the religious right. Andrea didn't exactly win fans among feminists either with her legal campaign against pornography. Quite a few feminists started anti-censorship web sites and publications as they were (rightly) concerned that the suppression of p**n would start with suppression of g*y or L*****n materials-whether it was sexually oriented or not.

I think most people misrepresent Dworkin's views since her autobiographical info was often confused with her theories expressed in her books-and much of her material was controversial then as well as now. I have a women's studies minor and tried to read some of her stuff-but it was beyond me. I've read transcripts of some interviews with her and she was clear that was was being misquoted and misinterpreted-but as she is now dead she isn't around to explain her views or what she actually said or meant. I read about her ideas in off our backs which was pretty supportive of anti-p**n feminists. I thought she was radical (which I think is fine) but thought her legislative work could have caused incredible suppression of "non-traditional" sexual information and erotica.  

As far as Susie Bright goes-I think she has an inflated sense of her importance in the feminist arena. I don't think too many people would consider her a sophisticated theorist-feminist or otherwise! She is more of a L*****n/bisexual icon since she was one of the first women to make a big splash about how fun s*x was with women-when lesbians (and bisexuals) were usually viewed as asexual or man-hating or both. On our backs (s*x positive women's erotica) was pretty radical for the women's community at that time - and she was the editor-in-chief for a number of years.

I'm not a particular fan of either woman-but Susie has made me laugh more than once. I've read a few of Susie's articles but none of her books. I think Susie Bright is a great feminist figure in her own mind-but don't believe she is among feminists.    

Answer 2

Try this link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susie_Brigh...