It does not come as a surprise that, today, television shows or sex documentaries feature women in very strong sexual roles. The show Sex and the City allows a viewer to listen to the sex lives of four middle-aged women who are not married (although one is divorced). The women talk among themselves about their journeys with men, both physically and mentally. It is a depiction of four strong women who raise the issues of promiscuity, which in their world is not a negative thing. Another example that demonstrates women discovering their sexuality is The Vagina Monologues. The author takes the audience into different stories about women who encounter various situations within their sex lives.
Clearly, women are becoming more comfortable with sharing the same sexual desires men do. The words “whore,” “slut” and “easy” may be words that come to a person’s mind when hearing a woman enjoying the discussion of the number of partners she has had and sexual acts she has participated in. While men may have sex with whom and how many they choose, it is not common to relate these labels to them.
During an interview, author Paula Kamen of the book “Her Way: Young Women Remake the Sexual Revolution,” expresses her views on the idea women have more power with their sexual lives now more than before. She said, “Women have been quietly evolving beyond the surface for the past 40 years.” According to Kamen, some reasons why women in the 1970s had less control was because birth control was not as safe, and abortion was illegal. Kamen also says women are not just acting like men but also are in control of their sex lives, which means more than imitating them. “For the last 40 years, women acting sexually more like men has been the easy part, because what is male in our society is traditionally considered best.”
The idea that birth control now is used widely has affected women and their sexuality. But is it just an excuse to be more open? According to authors Dennis P. Sugrue, Sally A. Kope and Sallie Foley, who wrote “Sex Matters for Women,” in 1960, the birth control pill created a revolution that gave freedom to women from sexual limitations. Before the revolution, women who chose not to have premarital sex were seen as moral and modest. After, in the 1960s, because of birth control and abortion, sexuality changed. Those women who were not sexually active were considered to be prudish and frigid.
According to author Amanda Poli’s research, a woman has more than 20 options for choosing a birth control method, which are divided up into four categories. The categories are behavioral, physical, medical, and surgical. These four different categories give insight as to how much a woman can have sex freely and protect herself at the same time. While birth control is helping some aspects of women’s sexuality, sex presents other problems that do not include pregnancy. According to sex therapists, women are twice as likely as men to have genital warts and chlamydia. Also, they are three times as likely to have genital herpes.
Another aspect of sex some women engage in is sex for money: prostitution. According to author Iris Leos Hickenbottom’s research, prostitution is one of the oldest professions. During the Victorian era, instead of seeing prostitution as a negative thing, feminists believed prostitutes were victims of men’s desires. Today, Americans have the same views of prostitutes as society did during the Victorian era. Words such as “whore” and “hooker” are labels for prostitutes. Not are prostitutes considered “whores,” but also many people also relate that word to any woman being who is sexually open.
Today, society subjects women to these stereotypes if they have multiple sex partners or are open about their sexuality. In reality, just as men explore their desires, passions and feelings, women in turn are exploring themselves. It is not only a man’s place to have sex and perform other sexual acts, women also fantasize about these things. These women are pursuing their dreams and are reclaiming their own control. So while men may be perceived as being macho, masculine and heroes for being promiscuous, women also should be portrayed as strong and independent for discovering their own desires.