Sex in society, the media and the classroom was the subject of discussion when author Susie Bright took the stage for the second of Bitch magazine’s lecture series in Portland State’s Smith Memorial Student Union last night.
The lecture was the second of Bitch‘s “Feminist perspectives in Pop Culture” lecture series, sponsored by PSU’s Women’s Resource Center. Bright’s lecture, called the “Sexual State of the Union” addressed the need for open discourse on the topic of sex, particularly in politics.
Bright said that people in positions to disseminate information, such as the Surgeon General, should be comfortable with discussing masturbation, and understand its relevancy toward social and personal health.
“What we want is to simply get the church out of our government, and the government out of our bedrooms,” Bright said.
Within politics, sex is used to isolate issues from their significance, allowing people to ostracize ideas within the realms of education, and our personal freedoms, she said.
“Sex is used as a wedge for people to point out what they don’t like,” she said, adding that the government’s tendency toward this behavior has made it “the department of ‘Just Us.'”
Bright also spoke on being perceived as a radical thinker.
“I’d like to get religion out of marriage,” she said, adding that many perceive her as a sexual radical.
Bright addressed California’s anti-gay marriage law, Proposition 8, which passed this earlier this month. Voting on such an issue is ludicrous, when it should be decided in the court system, if anywhere, she said.
“I always remind them what Ben Franklin wanted on the dollar bill: M.Y.O.B, mind your own business,” Bright said on those who support and legitimize this behavior in society. “If we have an administration that reflects the voters, will these issues be addressed?”
Addressing Obama’s potential choices for his cabinet, and whether any progress will be made within the realm of social sexual reform, she said, “We’ve all been worried about this upcoming year, in a country steeped in apathy.”
Bright, often referred to within the literary community as Susie Sexpert for her published work and viewpoints on sexual politics, is a writer, editor, audio-show host and performer who is one of original sex-positive feminists, contrary to anti-pornography feminists that dominated the feminist movement since the late 1970s.
“I’ve been doing my sexual state if the union address since the early ’80s at college campuses, theaters and community centers all over the country,” she said. “We were going to be digging into stuff that doesn’t always get a lot of spotlight. We’ve just had an election, so there’s a feeling of, ‘OK, wipe the slate clean.'”
Bright said that a discussion of sexuality is in many ways, inherently political.
“A sexual state of union is important,” she said. “It’s important to address why men and women relate to each other the way they do, and how public policy effects gender, and equality, and justice. It’s always been a part of a political discussion.”
Bitch‘s lecture series will conclude with two lectures in 2009, with Jennifer L. Pozner and Guerrilla Girls speaking in February and April, respectively.
For more information, visit www.wrc.pdx.edu.