After reading Gayle Rubin's "Thinking Sex" it got me thinking about how sex can provide to power to some. One statement of Rubin's that stayed with me was, "Like gender, sexuality is political. It is organized into systems of power, which reward and encourage some individuals and activities, while punishing and suppressing others." This statement reminded me of how women are only seen as providers of children and pleasure for men and men are seen as sex crazed animals who have something women need. This same idea is presented in many comedies on television and in movies. The women usually needs something from the man and seduces him to gain what she needs. Whether it is seducing a terrorist to get their missile codes in a mission impossible movie, or a tired wife seducing her husband to wash the dishes in a comedy, women use sex to gain power. Thus the women is only seen as holding the power of sex over men and nothing else.
This reminded me of a very funny episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. The episode was about how Ray unusually withheld sex from his because he was too tired and the next morning his wife acted nice towards him. Ray did not understand why, but he believed if he withheld sex again his wife would respect him more. This is exactly what happened since he withheld sex for three more days and his wife wanted him to pick the kids up and he instead decided to play golf, however, his wife wasn't angry. It was as if withholding sex caused his wife to respect him more and act more kindly towards him. Thus this exhibits what Rubin had said about how women, or in this case a man, can control the opposite sex with…well sex. This got me thinking about how if humans are still driven by such animalistic behaviors as sex can we still consider ourselves the most intellectual species?
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