Nice interview with Jessica Valenti of Feministing in yesterday’s Observer. I like her anecdote about Naomi Wolf. Although the interviewer seems to completely miss the point here:
With the rise of federally funded abstinence education, the ever-imminent overturning of the right to have an abortion, and the general promotion of the virtues of virginity, Valenti wants to, as she puts it, “outline a new way for us to think about young women as moral actors, one that doesn’t include their bodies”. This is a laudable aim, though one that might appear to be at odds with the declaration that feminism makes you better in bed; certainly Valenti’s oeuvre so far has not exactly made women’s bodies seem irrelevant.
The point is, body and sex as indicator of morality. There’s nothing wrong with sex or bodies; in fact I think it’s difficult to talk about feminism and leave them out, but what people do privately with their bodies – having sex, having an abortion – has very little to do with whether they are good people.