Content Warning: For my Feminist Theory Course at UW-Milwaukee, I wrote an essay on the heterosexualization of the female body applying theories of Anne Koedt and Shulamith Firestone. I am not of the opinion that vagina = female/woman or penis = male/man, but in the context of the assignment I used Koedt and Firestones own words. This essay was edited to reflect my own personal views in more depth.
This essay contains discussion of heterosexuality, sex and sexual activity, discussion of genitals including the penis, clitoris and vagina, some discussion of sexual oppression for women which includes descriptions of painful intercourse. Reader discretion is advised.
Firestone & Koedt vs. The (Hetero)sexualization of the Female Body
The sex/gender system must be dismantled. Why you may ask? Because it makes cisgender men nervous. All things considered, you, too, would be nervous if you were removed from a perceived position of power realm of sexuality that was established by others like you and was not rightfully "yours" to begin with. As Claudius feared so much of losing the thrown he wrongfully took from King Hamlet that he went to drastic measures to keep it, the male-dominated hetero matrix and all who adhere to it find the notion of doing away with sex and gender binary as terrifying. Feminist theorist Shulamith Firestone and Anne Koedt were set through their writings to disengage from the dichotomy that separates men and women into sexual categories. Moreover, I intend to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses to their arguments to ultimately form a solution to the damaging effects of the heterosexualization of women.
Anne Koedt called to question the patriarchal categorizations for female sexuality (her words) through her work in The Myth of Vaginal Orgasm, in which takes apart the concept developed by psychologist Sigmund Freud that implies that vaginal orgasm is dependent on stimulation with the penis. Koedt questioned the existence of vaginal orgasm, as it was heavy with implications that the "vagina-bearing" woman could only achieve stimulation with a "penis-bearing" male partner. She claims that men maintain this myth because of their technical preference for vaginal penetration during sex, which in most cases leads to procreation. Through maintaining the myth, it is asserted that women must rely on men if they want to get pregnant and bear a child. This of course, as Koedt states, eliminates the sexual potential of the clitoris which has “no other function than that of sexual pleasure” (Koedt, 187).
Shulamith Firestone also analyzes the obligation of heterosexual relations in The Dialect of Sexas damaging to women. Because of these prescribed gender roles, the implication that women must depend on men to procreate (and are therefore confined to heterosexual relations) perpetuates an idea of women also relying on men to achieve their lifelong goal of becoming a mother, starting a family, and continuing the ethereal circle of life. The notion of penile-vaginal penetrative sex is the only valid form of “sex” erases liberating potential of clitoral stimulation to orgasm, and women's sexual relations with other women. Additionally, this idea erases transgender and gender-non conforming people and their sexual relationships, as this can take many different forms and incorporate different practices. It also removes the “pleasurable” aspects of sex as most women in Firestone's essay describe penetration-only sex as uncomfortable or painful. In Firestone’s work The Culture of Romance, compulsory heterosexuality is not only damaging to women physically but also psychologically. When a woman depends on solely men for romance as well as sex, in some cases it can destroy her self-worth. She may find herself confined to a male partner she may not feel romantic connection to that could be satisfied sexually, she may adhere to unrealistic beauty ideals, project her resentment of her partner on her future children, and feel unable to pursue a female partner for sexual pleasure because sex involving two vaginas is not deemed “valid”.
Hence, Firestone and Koedt both saw liberating potential through clitoral orgasm and sapphic (women-loving-women) relationships. Since the clitoris exists purely for sexual pleasure, its stimulation is deemed revolutionary because clitoral orgasm does not necessarily need to be achieved with help of a partner, but through masturbation as well. For some women, masturbation is the only way they can achieve pleasure. For others, sexual attraction is not a priority in their lives either because they don't experience it or because they find other things such as cuddling, hand-holding, and spending time together as more intimate than sex. In cisgender, heterosexual relations, where the pleasure of the vagina-bearing woman partner during sex is so abstract, the sex/gender binary system is damaging to women by coercing them to be subordinate to men for sexual pleasure. Both Koedt and Firestone suggested that sapphic or lesbian interactions, in which both partners are vagina-bearing, have liberating potential because no men are involved; no partner is subordinate to the other; culturally. However, when dismantling gender binary -- a sexual relationship can still incorporate penile-vaginal penetration that can still not involve a man (for example, a transgender woman with a penis and cisgender woman with a vagina). Additionally, sex toys, oral sex, BDSM, anal sex, and other sexual practices that are not only penile-vaginal penetration have liberating potential, as they counter the patriarchal idea of penile-vaginal as the only "legitimate" form of sex.
In my opinion, true liberation of women from mandated sexual relations with men is to destroy the sex/gender dichotomy altogether. We must stop reducing gender identity to our sexual parts. We must normalize the idea that penis does not equal man and vagina does not equal woman. We have to normalize the idea that same-gender relationships can still incorporate a penis and vagina, or not. We must also normalize the idea that parenthood should not be achieved through sex only (i.e. adoption, surrogacy, or sperm/egg donation). If we take apart the ideas that love, romance, and sex are three separate categories and are not equal or lesser to one another, we can achieve the same liberating potential that Koedt and Firestone saw with the clitoris.
Works Cited:
Shulamith Firestone, excerpts from The Dialectic of Sex. New York: Bantam Books, 1970. (pp. 1-14, 146-155)
Anne Koedt, “The Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm,” Radical Feminism. Eds. Anne Koedt, Ellen Levine & Anita Rapone. New York: Quadrangle Books, 1973.
