sexism in "Private Practice" / 'withholding' sex, p-i-v sex = 'legitimate', dump sexless marriage
argh! I've gotten blocked, I strongly dislike when this happens. I have such a flood of new thoughts/feelings that I am trying to sort and express, and I took too long of a break from the expressing part and now it has all built up and bottlenecked. *growl* I've stopped reading my current nonfiction because it inspires too many MORE new thoughts! *deep breath* I suppose I'll dump a bunch of random stuff in this post and then I can get on with it all.
Private Practice ANNOYS ME with its rampant sexism and dull, unsympathetic characters.
The pilot was great -- it really showcased Addison's character and I fell more in love with her than ever before. But everyone else is so dull (I can't even remember their NAMES), except the psycho-logist who annoys me by staying attached to a rotten ex, and the receptionist-midwife-guy whom I DID love, but now dislike for his sexist comments. And in this last episode the whole thing has become ridiculously misogynistic. Examples: whats-his-face says 'be a man' to the psycho-logist to encourage her to delete shitty-ex's message. Hello? since when did men become the only ones capable of moving on?
Also, arrogant-holistic-guy tells his dead wife that she 'withheld sex' which is an INCREDIBLY MISOGYNISTIC concept that INFURIATES me every time I hear it!!! 'Withholding' implies that sex is owed. NO ONE ever owes anyone sex, never never never never NEVER FUCKING NEVER!!! Marriage is not a contract in which woman must pay man sex whenever he wants it, however he wants it. Sex is ALWAYS a mutual gift, it cannot be coerced, stolen, obligated, or bought. When it is coerced, stolen, obligated, or bought, it becomes rape. So the concept of 'withholding' implies that a woman should submit to rape whenever the man desires it, or she is being a bad wife. A healthy, respectful person only wants to have sex if their spouse also desires it -- a good person does not wish to coerce anyone into having sex. If he is randy and she is not, he can have sex with HIMSELF. And the concept that sex can be 'withheld' implies that the woman has only one reason for not wanting to have sex -- spite. First of all, it is not 'spiteful' to not want to have sex. A woman is not harming a man by not having sex with him -- she is merely refraining from joining in a mutual creation of pleasure. She's not starving him -- she's just not sharing her dessert. He has his own dessert, he doesn't NEED to share hers. Failing to give a gift is NOT SPITE. The reasons a woman does not want to have sex are very simple: 1) the sex is bad, either because of the other person's problems or personal wounds; or 2) the relationship has other problems which make her unhappy with the man. If the sex is good and she's happy with her spouse, she's going to want sex.
And on the subject of arrogant-holistic-guy: "do you need me to kiss you again?" UGH! a hint for you Addison -- the proper response would be: "no, stop harassing me. If I want to be in a relationship with you that permits the intimacy of kissing, I will let you know." possible addendum: "you arrogant, sexist pig."
ALSO, the storyline with the couple where the woman had vag. problems and couldn't have sex: UGH!!!! if a man told me that he would leave me if I couldn't have penis-in-vagina sex with him, I'd fucking divorce him on the spot for caring more about sex than about me. That was so fucking sick, especially since they were newlyweds and should have had a liiiiiittle more faith in the power of love. sick sick sick. Also, they could still have both had orgasms (her clit still worked from what I could tell of the medical-ese), so why the emphasis on penis-in-vagina sex?? it's implied that that is the only 'real' sex, which I think is both narrow-minded and heterosexist. ((I would still have tried whatever I could to get it fixed, but not in order to keep assface-sexually-selfish-nasty-person in my life)) I was also extremely annoyed by the woman's pathetic eagerness to please. She didn't want to have sex for her own sake, but to KEEP HIM FROM LEAVING HER.
AND then receptionist-midwife-guy goes on and on about how you can manipulate women by 'finding out what they want and giving it to them.' Now I agree this is true, but it is true of HUMANS, not merely women and children -- men are not immune. And manipulating anyone for your own personal gain is not something to be proud of.
bah, this was supposed to be a post of bunches of stuff, but it is too long already. Anyway, I think I'll give Private Practice one more try and if it doesn't dump the sexism and get more interesting, I'm not watching, not even for Addison.
Private Practice ANNOYS ME with its rampant sexism and dull, unsympathetic characters.
The pilot was great -- it really showcased Addison's character and I fell more in love with her than ever before. But everyone else is so dull (I can't even remember their NAMES), except the psycho-logist who annoys me by staying attached to a rotten ex, and the receptionist-midwife-guy whom I DID love, but now dislike for his sexist comments. And in this last episode the whole thing has become ridiculously misogynistic. Examples: whats-his-face says 'be a man' to the psycho-logist to encourage her to delete shitty-ex's message. Hello? since when did men become the only ones capable of moving on?Also, arrogant-holistic-guy tells his dead wife that she 'withheld sex' which is an INCREDIBLY MISOGYNISTIC concept that INFURIATES me every time I hear it!!! 'Withholding' implies that sex is owed. NO ONE ever owes anyone sex, never never never never NEVER FUCKING NEVER!!! Marriage is not a contract in which woman must pay man sex whenever he wants it, however he wants it. Sex is ALWAYS a mutual gift, it cannot be coerced, stolen, obligated, or bought. When it is coerced, stolen, obligated, or bought, it becomes rape. So the concept of 'withholding' implies that a woman should submit to rape whenever the man desires it, or she is being a bad wife. A healthy, respectful person only wants to have sex if their spouse also desires it -- a good person does not wish to coerce anyone into having sex. If he is randy and she is not, he can have sex with HIMSELF. And the concept that sex can be 'withheld' implies that the woman has only one reason for not wanting to have sex -- spite. First of all, it is not 'spiteful' to not want to have sex. A woman is not harming a man by not having sex with him -- she is merely refraining from joining in a mutual creation of pleasure. She's not starving him -- she's just not sharing her dessert. He has his own dessert, he doesn't NEED to share hers. Failing to give a gift is NOT SPITE. The reasons a woman does not want to have sex are very simple: 1) the sex is bad, either because of the other person's problems or personal wounds; or 2) the relationship has other problems which make her unhappy with the man. If the sex is good and she's happy with her spouse, she's going to want sex.
And on the subject of arrogant-holistic-guy: "do you need me to kiss you again?" UGH! a hint for you Addison -- the proper response would be: "no, stop harassing me. If I want to be in a relationship with you that permits the intimacy of kissing, I will let you know." possible addendum: "you arrogant, sexist pig."
ALSO, the storyline with the couple where the woman had vag. problems and couldn't have sex: UGH!!!! if a man told me that he would leave me if I couldn't have penis-in-vagina sex with him, I'd fucking divorce him on the spot for caring more about sex than about me. That was so fucking sick, especially since they were newlyweds and should have had a liiiiiittle more faith in the power of love. sick sick sick. Also, they could still have both had orgasms (her clit still worked from what I could tell of the medical-ese), so why the emphasis on penis-in-vagina sex?? it's implied that that is the only 'real' sex, which I think is both narrow-minded and heterosexist. ((I would still have tried whatever I could to get it fixed, but not in order to keep assface-sexually-selfish-nasty-person in my life)) I was also extremely annoyed by the woman's pathetic eagerness to please. She didn't want to have sex for her own sake, but to KEEP HIM FROM LEAVING HER.
AND then receptionist-midwife-guy goes on and on about how you can manipulate women by 'finding out what they want and giving it to them.' Now I agree this is true, but it is true of HUMANS, not merely women and children -- men are not immune. And manipulating anyone for your own personal gain is not something to be proud of.
bah, this was supposed to be a post of bunches of stuff, but it is too long already. Anyway, I think I'll give Private Practice one more try and if it doesn't dump the sexism and get more interesting, I'm not watching, not even for Addison.
