I discovered The Power at a time when feminists were turning into fauxminists. I embraced my sensuality and 'the male gaze' while they self-infantilized and adopted perma-victimhood.
A wonderful antidote to the Puritanism of contemporary feminism. All women should get out of their own heads and embrace feminine sensuality in any way they can.
Loved this. Makes me want to take a belly-dancing class with my daughter.
Although I do confess I aspire to be the first belly dancer to remove more veils than anyone else. I'll call it "Remove 1,001 Arabian Veils In One Night." Think I can make $3m from that???
Comments are full of great insight’s, however for some reason I find the top photograph fantastic (“like this. Six months later”).
I love “old” photos that invoke a time in someone’s (anyone’s) life. Especially when you can almost guess the time period by looking at it. And especially at a time when there seems to be need for people to ‘self edit’ their personal history to go along with their own ‘origin story’.
The highest compliment I can give, is to say, with the greatest respect, you were a dork 😊
I had men at the few stag parties I did tell me they'd rather have a belly dancer than a stripper. Not everyone appreciates the latter! I got sent to stag parties because they didn't want a stripper for one reason or another - Grandpa was going to be there and he would be horrified, the bride said okay to a belly dancer if she doesn't take anything off, or in one case (it wasn't a stag party) a policeman's retirement party attended by the force. They double-checked with me outside to make sure I wouldn't be removing anything other than a veil, and my outfit was body-covering enough. "No one's going to be tomorrow's front-page headline in the newspaper!" I assured them. A stripper would have resulted in a public scandal.
What can I say to that that hasn't been said? Let's say that the woman every man wants is NOT the prettiest. There is a second, magnetic or feminine quality that they will come to instead. And I think very much that quality can be covered or uncovered.
This was a tremendous article, Grow Some Labia! You broke with feminist dogma and discovered the empowering art of belly dancing. Third and fourth-wave feminists deride belly dancing not as an art but as a way for women to be purely objects of desire for men. But as you learned from mastering the ancient art of belly dancing, it empowers women, helps them embrace their bodies and gain confidence. Sensuality and sexuality are two very different things. This is something that radical feminists fail to understand. Belly dancing is perceived as the latter, but it is actually the former. Belly dancing does not make men become sex crazed animals but rather to respect and admire a woman's beauty and confidence. It also embraces a variety of body types. In fact, historically belly dancers had curvy soft bodies they were not stick figures. Radical feminists see women as victims who must always be protected, a man can never disagree with them as they are Gods who are all-knowing, and women are perpetual victims. Which ironically, sounds a lot like how male chauvinists see women. It ironically, kind of sounds like what Andrew Tate would answer if asked how he feels woman should be perceived. But you found liberation and self-autonomy in belly dancing and using the "male gaze" to gain the respect and adoration of respectful gentlemen rather than the objectification of horny pigs. You also had a lot of fun and kept active by doing it. You know the situation with belly dancing reminds me of another practice that feminists deride as degrading to women but is actually liberating and empowering that being prostitution. As long as it doesn't involve trafficking, prostitution is the act of women taking control over their own sexuality and making a living off of it. The fascinating history of prostitution shows they were indeed trail blazers for women's equality. Before prostitution became illegal it was controlled by women. Madams as they were called ran prostitution businesses where the sex workers involved were protected from harm, made good money and lived the high life. In fact, prostitutes were the first women to make wages comparable to and sometimes higher than men's. Prostitutes also broke cultural taboos that imposed restrictions on women. Women weren't supposed to wear makeup, wear bright colored clothing or walk the streets by themselves. Prostitutes flouted social conventions and did all these things leading to those taboos being broken all women being able to do them. Prostitutes and madams were among the wealthiest people in the country. "Diamond Jesse" Hayman a madam in San Francisco owned her own land, used her own guns, provided her employees with clothes on cutting-edge of fashion, and gave food and shelter to the thousands left homeless by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Madams and prostitutes also helped in preventing New Orleans from becoming racially segregated because it prevented prostitutes from seeing their clients and hurt the prostitution business. Prostitution only became dangerous for and exploitative of, women when it made illegal, and it drove the profession underground and shifted it from being controlled by women to being controlled by men. Since they could no longer find a madam to work for legitimately, in order to make a living and find work they fell into the hands of gangsters and pimps.
I can't speak to the earlier history of prostitution but I suspect it was probably a lot less empowering than it is today, which is to say not much, even if it's ostensibly freely chosen. Historically it was one of the few professions open to women and dangerous because it was illegal. I'll bet that most of those women would have chosen something else, because honestly, women are really not wired to have sex with a lot of men. (What constitutes 'a lot' is up for much debate). I have read a *few* books by women who sound like it *might* be okay sometimes...Xaviera Hollander being one of them, but it was a long time ago I read her book, she may have become more honest since then, I don't know (if she's even alive). Growing up in the pre-feminism era, she did say she found she liked sex and didn't understand why it was illegal to charge for it.
The Mayflower Madam's book was another, but, she didn't hook herself, she organized the hookers. I haven't been able to find anyone so far who wrote about her experience working for the MM, and I'd be curious. She may have sugarcoated it, I don't know. Dolores French's 'Working Girl' was another one, and she seemed to like what she was doing. So I won't say it *can't* be an enjoyable profession, but I don't believe it's all that empowering, frankly, at least for 99% of sex workers, and I mean the ones who claim they 'want' to do it. Pretty much no woman who voluntarily engages in porn was all that mentally stable to begin with - they almost all come from histories of trauma, often sexual trauma. The porn industry is just as degrading and horrendous to women as it's always been, and you can see the interviews on YouTube with women who eventually got worn down by it all, even as no one ever forced them. The chick who did a hundred men in one day and now wants to do a thousand? No one will ever convince me she's 'normal' or 'empowered' and it's a tragedy that that's the only thing she can think of to do to make money.
So I ask you honestly, Noah: If having sex for money is so empowering why don't *you* do it? Granted, you'd probably have to service men who are the prime buyers as, of course, women don't have to pay for sex. If you have a job, you could make it a side hustle to make some extra bucks. Would you do it? Honest question.
A wonderful antidote to the Puritanism of contemporary feminism. All women should get out of their own heads and embrace feminine sensuality in any way they can.
Loved this. Makes me want to take a belly-dancing class with my daughter.
You should! I love it!
Although I do confess I aspire to be the first belly dancer to remove more veils than anyone else. I'll call it "Remove 1,001 Arabian Veils In One Night." Think I can make $3m from that???
Comments are full of great insight’s, however for some reason I find the top photograph fantastic (“like this. Six months later”).
I love “old” photos that invoke a time in someone’s (anyone’s) life. Especially when you can almost guess the time period by looking at it. And especially at a time when there seems to be need for people to ‘self edit’ their personal history to go along with their own ‘origin story’.
The highest compliment I can give, is to say, with the greatest respect, you were a dork 😊
Thank you. And I'm STILL a dork :) But more popular than I was in high school lol.
Wonderful read. I appreciate the explicit divide between the concepts of sensuality and sexuality. Incredibly important. 🙏
I had men at the few stag parties I did tell me they'd rather have a belly dancer than a stripper. Not everyone appreciates the latter! I got sent to stag parties because they didn't want a stripper for one reason or another - Grandpa was going to be there and he would be horrified, the bride said okay to a belly dancer if she doesn't take anything off, or in one case (it wasn't a stag party) a policeman's retirement party attended by the force. They double-checked with me outside to make sure I wouldn't be removing anything other than a veil, and my outfit was body-covering enough. "No one's going to be tomorrow's front-page headline in the newspaper!" I assured them. A stripper would have resulted in a public scandal.
I agree with those men.
What can I say to that that hasn't been said? Let's say that the woman every man wants is NOT the prettiest. There is a second, magnetic or feminine quality that they will come to instead. And I think very much that quality can be covered or uncovered.
This was a tremendous article, Grow Some Labia! You broke with feminist dogma and discovered the empowering art of belly dancing. Third and fourth-wave feminists deride belly dancing not as an art but as a way for women to be purely objects of desire for men. But as you learned from mastering the ancient art of belly dancing, it empowers women, helps them embrace their bodies and gain confidence. Sensuality and sexuality are two very different things. This is something that radical feminists fail to understand. Belly dancing is perceived as the latter, but it is actually the former. Belly dancing does not make men become sex crazed animals but rather to respect and admire a woman's beauty and confidence. It also embraces a variety of body types. In fact, historically belly dancers had curvy soft bodies they were not stick figures. Radical feminists see women as victims who must always be protected, a man can never disagree with them as they are Gods who are all-knowing, and women are perpetual victims. Which ironically, sounds a lot like how male chauvinists see women. It ironically, kind of sounds like what Andrew Tate would answer if asked how he feels woman should be perceived. But you found liberation and self-autonomy in belly dancing and using the "male gaze" to gain the respect and adoration of respectful gentlemen rather than the objectification of horny pigs. You also had a lot of fun and kept active by doing it. You know the situation with belly dancing reminds me of another practice that feminists deride as degrading to women but is actually liberating and empowering that being prostitution. As long as it doesn't involve trafficking, prostitution is the act of women taking control over their own sexuality and making a living off of it. The fascinating history of prostitution shows they were indeed trail blazers for women's equality. Before prostitution became illegal it was controlled by women. Madams as they were called ran prostitution businesses where the sex workers involved were protected from harm, made good money and lived the high life. In fact, prostitutes were the first women to make wages comparable to and sometimes higher than men's. Prostitutes also broke cultural taboos that imposed restrictions on women. Women weren't supposed to wear makeup, wear bright colored clothing or walk the streets by themselves. Prostitutes flouted social conventions and did all these things leading to those taboos being broken all women being able to do them. Prostitutes and madams were among the wealthiest people in the country. "Diamond Jesse" Hayman a madam in San Francisco owned her own land, used her own guns, provided her employees with clothes on cutting-edge of fashion, and gave food and shelter to the thousands left homeless by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Madams and prostitutes also helped in preventing New Orleans from becoming racially segregated because it prevented prostitutes from seeing their clients and hurt the prostitution business. Prostitution only became dangerous for and exploitative of, women when it made illegal, and it drove the profession underground and shifted it from being controlled by women to being controlled by men. Since they could no longer find a madam to work for legitimately, in order to make a living and find work they fell into the hands of gangsters and pimps.
I can't speak to the earlier history of prostitution but I suspect it was probably a lot less empowering than it is today, which is to say not much, even if it's ostensibly freely chosen. Historically it was one of the few professions open to women and dangerous because it was illegal. I'll bet that most of those women would have chosen something else, because honestly, women are really not wired to have sex with a lot of men. (What constitutes 'a lot' is up for much debate). I have read a *few* books by women who sound like it *might* be okay sometimes...Xaviera Hollander being one of them, but it was a long time ago I read her book, she may have become more honest since then, I don't know (if she's even alive). Growing up in the pre-feminism era, she did say she found she liked sex and didn't understand why it was illegal to charge for it.
The Mayflower Madam's book was another, but, she didn't hook herself, she organized the hookers. I haven't been able to find anyone so far who wrote about her experience working for the MM, and I'd be curious. She may have sugarcoated it, I don't know. Dolores French's 'Working Girl' was another one, and she seemed to like what she was doing. So I won't say it *can't* be an enjoyable profession, but I don't believe it's all that empowering, frankly, at least for 99% of sex workers, and I mean the ones who claim they 'want' to do it. Pretty much no woman who voluntarily engages in porn was all that mentally stable to begin with - they almost all come from histories of trauma, often sexual trauma. The porn industry is just as degrading and horrendous to women as it's always been, and you can see the interviews on YouTube with women who eventually got worn down by it all, even as no one ever forced them. The chick who did a hundred men in one day and now wants to do a thousand? No one will ever convince me she's 'normal' or 'empowered' and it's a tragedy that that's the only thing she can think of to do to make money.
So I ask you honestly, Noah: If having sex for money is so empowering why don't *you* do it? Granted, you'd probably have to service men who are the prime buyers as, of course, women don't have to pay for sex. If you have a job, you could make it a side hustle to make some extra bucks. Would you do it? Honest question.