Gendered Judgmentalism

When Jason's Hot Shot rape arc first launched, our friend Amy (webmistress of the clever and hilarious She Liked Imaginary Men Best of All) was justifiably outraged.

She commented on Facebook that if a woman were strapped to a bed and used as a breeding mare, people would be going nuts. Rebecca responded that she felt people were supposed to be disgusted and outraged by this depiction of the repeated violation of a man by a string of (I would argue also exploited) women.

And during Sookie's (hot! hot! hot!) Bill/Eric dream this past Sunday, she admonished the two of them for buying into the double standard that she must be one of theirs, but she - as the proper lady she is -shoudn't even entertain the idea of having both of them be hers.

And forget the idea of a vampwich with Sookie in the middle; that's just too far outside the boundaries of society's standards for acceptable female sexuality (but as Sookie said, it's OK if the threesome consists of girl-boy-girl, even if the players barely know each other)!

It was her dream, so ultimately they both caved. I wonder if that had anything to do with the fact that she emphasized how her desire for both of them to love her was born out of her total, complete love for the two of them. Because women are hardwired to conflate love and sex, right...and to reserve intimate relations for partners with whom she is in love, rather than in lust, with?

Now, I'm not advocating for indiscriminate, lust-driven sex outside of a caring, mutually consenting, adult relationship. I'm just interested in seeing more expansive options for women to express ourselves and our sexuality outside the constricted bounds of our society's gender-based norms, is all.

This idea of double-standard and reversal got me to thinking...

...If a woman were carrying on a purely physical affair or two while still in love with, or hung up on an ex-lover (as Bill had been doing with Katerina and Portia) how would that be viewed?

How is it viewed when he's doing it?

Does it negate his continuing love for Sookie?


She sure let him have it for "sticking his fangs and God knows what else into every girl in Bon Temps". S4E6 I Wish I Was the Moon

Is it OK because he's a man, and as such, has needs for
companionship and sexual gratification that must be satisfied?

Granted, he has been upfront with these women and has not led them on.
He even told Portia outright (albeit rather coldly) that he could never love her, and although it was she who suggested that they casually add sex to the equation of their already successful and friendly professional relationship, I'm pretty sure I saw her flinch.




Yet she accepted Bill's terms for taking their relationship to the next level.

Does this diminish her femininity?

Reduce her to a cliché with all the fixins expected of the (in her words) "smartest and most powerful" professional woman in Bon Temps, i.e. ballbuster, bitch, etc.?

She goes after what she wants. She's willing to enter into a "friends with benefits" situation. She's a self-described "terrier", as a lawyer and a lover.

Does this make her emotionally bankrupt (an undesirable trait in a woman)?

Would these pitbull qualities make others see Portia as being too much like a man to be a real woman?

Now, since Bill found out that Portia is actually his great-great-great-great granddaughter, we're not likely to be seeing her again (at least not in his bed) any time soon. But honestly, don't you think his brush-off was a little silly and condescending?

Sure, Portia was very aggressive in her rationalization of incest. And yes, he's got an awful lot on his hands, what with his kingdom facing the witch crisis, and all. To top it off, Bill was not overly invested in their brief relationship; he had promised her nothing.

Even so, no matter how busy Bill was, however eager to short circuit their dance around his desk, with him in retreat as she gave chase he may have been, didn't such an intelligent, sophisticated woman deserve a letdown that didn't involve being glamoured to scream at this sight of him?

Please weigh in below!

~ Rachel

Sexual Consciousness - The Forbidden Fruit - Sookie's Orgasmic Awakening

(the following is excerpted from the presentation embedded in the post below)

“The power of the erotic is acknowledged in many cultures” (p. 110); Shakti is the Sanskrit term for the erotic as female life force (Austen, 1991). Audre Lorde (1989) poetically describes the erotic as a kernel within herself that, when released from its intense and constrained pellet, flows through and colors her life with a kind of energy that heightens and sensitizes and strengthens all her experience.

Regrettably, in our culture the erotic has been misnamed, made into the confused, the trivial, the psychotic, the plasticized sensation (Lorde, 1989); perverted by ideas associated with pornography (Martin, 1995). In euro-Western culture, the erotic has been denigrated and relegated to so few areas of life that its remaining expressions are overloaded and distorted (Austen, 1991).

We are taught to separate the erotic from most vital areas of our lives other than sex - and to take the true erotic out of our sex; "to fear the yes within ourselves, our deepest cravings" (Lorde, 1989, p. 211).

Women empowered with the erotic are seen as dangerous (Lorde, 1989); the Hebrew Lilith's exile for her sexual independence is emblematic of the Judeo-Christian suppression of women (Austen, 1991). 

How would our society differ for women and men if the erotic's true psychic and emotional components were fully integrated into our lives?

Let's look back to mythology for such a model...

Persephone's pre-Olympian initiation would have been fertile in that it was a complex, transformative experience of the erotic.

^{Death, life, male, female and, above all, the irrepressible power of reproduction—all are found in the image of the pomegranate seed. It is this seed that Persephone takes within her body—literally incorporating it into her own being. With this seed, she becomes a new person: whole, mature, fertile, and infinitely more complex than before. Having tasted it, she has crossed a barrier from which there can be no turning back. (Gadon, 1989, p. 159).}

Sookie’s emergent erotic life has been cited as a central theme of True Blood. Vampire fiction often reflects the fear that such strong, independent, sexual  women will disrupt the fabric of society (Parlour, 2009). For McCabe, Dracula’s worst sin may have been not only rendering women capable of enjoying sex, but transforming them into sexual aggressors.

The legends of the Sumerian Innana contain some of the most erotic, female, and eros-positive literature known (Austen, 1990); she takes an aggressive role in the sacred marriage. Like Innana—and certainly no Virgin Mary, Sookie initiated with Bill, encouraged him along when he faltered, offering her neck, asked him to bite her, signals Bill with her eyes when she was ready to be penetrated – on HER terms. As Brace & Arp (2010) write, when Bill and Sookie consummate their relationship, he penetrates her simultaneously with both penis and fangs, heightening the pleasure for both of them.

HERE YOU'LL SEE THE BRIEF YET POTENT VIDEO - BEST EXPERIENCED WITH SPEAKERS ON - THAT SHOULD APPEAR ON SLIDE 125 OF THE PRESENTATION BELOW (it was part of the original conference presentation but didn't translate in the conversion from PowerPoint to Blogger): 

The ancient initiates to Persephone’s mysteries experienced a special seeing, an “opening of the eyes” (Gadon, 1989); might Sookie’s eyes snapping open in her moment of orgasmic awakening depict “the disturbingly powerful potential of women” (Amador, 2003, p. 1, ¶5) in touch with Eros, sexually sovereign?

Thirsty for more? View the whole presentation posted below!

(citations correspond to reference list posted here)

~ Rachel

Here's the True Blood Reenacts the Goddess Persephone's Ordeal of Abduction and Rape...or Self-Directed Sexual Initiation? Opening a Vein on Woman-Centered Sexuality conference paper; you can view it in fullscreen mode by clicking on the 1st button on the left-hand side of the Scribd taskbar below

PCA ACA True Blood Conference Paper With Citations and Corresponding Slide Numbers

Another Quickie!

Just enough time for another quickie...wink wink ;-)

The Pierced Pomegranate Tavern will be opening up shop for a limited time (kinda sorta) in San Antonio, Texas from April 20-23rd, 2011.

I'll be presenting an academic paper exploring issues of sexuality and representation through the lens of True Blood at the PCA/ACA & Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Associations joint conference, in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Area: Special Area: True Blood track.

The paper's entitled, True Blood Reenacts the Goddess Persephone's Ordeal of Abduction and Rape...or Self-Directed Sexual Initiation? Opening a Vein on Woman-Centered Sexuality

Here's a summary:

HBO’s hit series True Blood is not only wildly entertaining; it is also a potent medium through which to explore the human condition and to critically engage the cultural currents and provocative sociopolitical issues of today. With the surging movement of contemporary women’s studies as its guiding framework, this visual talk revolves around two True Blood sexual story arcs—one centered on Tara Thornton; the other on Sookie Stackhouse—both of which culminate in scenes featuring a white nightgown reminiscent of a wedding dress. Although similarities exist between these narratives of carnal encounter, they differ markedly; each can be seen as paralleling one of two versions of the Demeter-Persephone myth—the first being the well-known version of Persephone’s abduction and rape and the second being the feminist imagining of the original pre-Olympian sacred story in which the Goddess enjoyed a free and joyous sexuality. Cycling between True Blood and the mythology it recapitulates, we will explore the charged concepts and themes of sex and sexuality they illuminate: virginity, sex-roles and stereotypes, pleasure, initiation, the erotic, violence, dominance and rape, attitudes toward sexually autonomous women, the sacred sexual, etc. Persephone’s mysteries confront us with the divide between Goddess and patriarchal consciousness. Drawing upon 30,000 years of art, myth, histories and poetry, we will contextualize modern notions about sex and gender revealed in True Blood within the shift from egalitarian to dominator societal structure, explore woman and sex-positive cultures, and identify new models for sexual and body sacrality – both female and male.

My main challenge will be fitting all my content into the 15 minutes presenters are allotted! Think I can do it? I'm not convinced!!!

Feel like joining us deep in the heart of Texas this spring? Here's a link to the conference website for more info: http://www.swtxpca.org/

Back later...

~ Rachel