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AS ASIAN WOMEN
By Vivian Tseng

SEXUAL/REVOLUTION

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"THIS SO-CALLED SEXUAL REVOLUTION... DIVORCED FROM ITS POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC COUNTERPARTS IS MEANINGLESS, IT IS NEITHER REVOLUTION NOR SIGNIFICANT TRANSFORMATION OF SOCIETY, BUT A MERE CHANGE IN LIFESTYLE..."

I woke up today with a particular sense of clear sightedness. Clarity is often accompanied by boldness, for it presumes an understanding of events past and present and implies a blueprint for future action. Having begun on such a grandiose scale, I would like to follow with a series of disclaimers. The lucidity I speak of is brief and fleeting, a momentary exhilaration of insight, often difficult to substantiate with later action. Such clarity may be more illusion created by fresh air and early morning sunshine, fated to melt away with the heat of the day. Moreover, any insight, however lucid, is limited because it is based on the knowledge and experience of one person. Other lives may speak to the contrary.

Enough warnings. Let me get to the point.

The clarity that I speak of is the clarity of purpose that comes with a correct understanding of goals and priorities. In this case, it is imperative that we understand our priorities in the Asian women's movement, and distinguish character and content of our movement from other political movements and cultural fads. The object of this article is to dispel certain myths prevalent in a popular consciousness. This is a continuing concern, and will be a recurrent topic in these pages. The first myth to be discussed is the confusion between the sexual revolution and women's liberation.

Freedom is not won in a vacuum...

It is our particular misfortune that the inception and emergence of the women's movement was preceded and accompanied by the so-called sexual revolution. The advent of the pill in the sixties, and the consequent choice women suddenly gained in time, place and partner for sex was celebrated as the most revolutionary freedom gained in the 20th century. However, freedom is not won in a vacuum, and the lack of political and social agitation meant that this freedom, proclaimed and interpreted by men, became only another pitfall for women. The sexual revolution of the sixties translated freedom to mean availability. Whereas virginity was once next to godliness, promiscuity was now promoted to that pedestal. Frigidity became the accusation feared by all women, and indiscriminately thrown at those less "free", that is, less accomodating [[accommodating]] women. This so-called sexual revolution obliterated the distinction between "respectable" and those "other" women without going to the root of machismo concept of sexuality.

Control, without structural change is meaningless...

This so-called sexual revolution was a cultural manifestation of technological changes in society in the last decade. The advent of medical technology produced the pill and other contraceptive devices. Medicine produced the means by which women may finally control their reproductive process, but medicine could not provide the structural change such as control implies, nor the social understanding and acceptance for that control. Divorced from its political and economic counterparts, this cultural change is meaningless. It is neither revolution nor significant transformation of society, but a mere change in lifestyle that leaves the economic and political status unchanged. And the oppression of women under this status quo remains.

Erica Jong's book, Fear of Flying, is an expression of this misunderstood notion of sexual freedom. Jong describes the sexual awakenings of a middle-age, middle-class woman. It offers no clear analysis on women's sexuality, or sexuality in general, in chauvinistic society. It merely celebrates sex in and for itself which after the first chapter, becomes meaningless and uninteresting. Yet this woman has become media's darling, lecturing on the college circuit and populating the late evening talk show. It is instructive for us to understand why the male dominant culture and media has picked this particular author to be our spokesperson. Much to this society's credit, and to the movement's discredit, we now have a woman giving credence to the fantasies and distortions of Mailer, Hemingway, et. al. In Fear of Flying, woman becomes sexuality incarnate, with no more control over life in or out of the bedroom than the previous virgin marys.

CONTINUED IN NEXT ISSUE: THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN BOURGEOIS WHITE WOMEN'S MOVEMENT, AND THIRD WORLD WOMEN'S LIBERATION.