Objectify This

Since I’m getting some traffic from Ms. Chen, I’ll make it easier to find the post she refers to:

Here’s a discussion of sex columnists and sex blogging, called Carrie On: Sex and the College Sex Column, and here’s a Vindication of the Rights of Sexbloggers.

The argument (whose title is drawn from Mary Wollstonecraft’s venerable A Vindication of the Rights of Woman) is basically that to degrade a woman for her expression of her sexuality is not so different from degrading a woman for her sex. Part of granting women agency is granting them the ability to do things that other people think are tawdry or lewd.

It’s interesting to note that all of the commentators with their panties in a twist about Lena Chen’s lewdness are sitting at home at their computers, choosing to look at photos of Ms. Chen and then smacking themselves in the cheekbone.

She never frogmarched anyone to her website. They came willingly to squawk in dismay. This is not to say that everything that can be done for attention should be done for attention. But a girl has rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Live and let live.

Photo Credit: Rachel Kramer Bussel