Letter to the Editor | Unfair misconception of Squirm’s mission

I have to admit that I wasn’t as surprised as I should have been upon reading the editorial entitled “Women’s education eternally important” by Brenna Gilbert in Sept. 30, 2005 edition of The Miscellany News. Organizations like SQUIRM are criticized for their failure to promote a non-sexist sex-positivity on campus. As the Literary Editor of SQUIRM, witnessing the recent attack against our name has been overwhelming and concerning, as our flyers have been torn down relentlessly and our freedom of speech squelched all over campus this year.

To address the author's comparison of the racist views expressed in The Imperialist to the supposedly sexist images found in SQUIRM, I must point out that one publication used a voice of privileged power to express oppressive opinions about minority groups, while the other serves as a submission-based outlet for those who want to express their own positions of being oppressed. There is a reason why SQUIRM is so popular with women, transfolk, queers, and sexual deviants (myself being part of all of those groups), and it's not for the money, as in actual pornography; instead, it’s for the empowerment.

Throughout the country and on this campus, modern feminist discourse seems to be not only halted, but moving backward. This editorial written in 2005 could have easily been written in 1975, when feminists, in their battle against different modes of sexism, attacked expressions of positive female sexuality (specifically in pornography) instead of the dominant patriarchal systems that create the oppression. Not to say there isn’t a plethora of oppressive pornographic material in this world. But in an attempt to defend women’s rights, these women did (and apparently still do) overlook all of the subversive, empowering outlets that have emerged for female sexual expression. SQUIRM is one such outlet.

The author decided to point out that the most recent issue of SQUIRM was dominated by female bodies, which, I admit, is true. However, regardless of the fact that SQUIRM is a submissions-based magazine and therefore works with what it receives, the mere existence of female bodies in artistically sexual poses does not mean that these women are feeding into the patriarchal expectation of woman as submissive sex objects. These women are becoming, sometimes for the first time, sexual subjects; they are empowering themselves through their free sexual expression, reclaiming the sexist male gaze in a subversive act which redirects its oppressive power into themselves, and using their bodies for the own sexual pleasure, therefore shattering that oppression.

Finally, the author of this editorial expressed an offense taken from the alternative expressions of sexuality and desire found in the magazine, specifically of bondage, domination, sadistic and masochistic practices(BDSM). Had she considered my accompanying article, which illuminated a reclamation of the oppressed female body through BDSM practices, perhaps the existence of these pictures could have been adequately justified for her.

The author also decided to ignore the articles that have existed in past magazines, including, but not limited to, issues of sexual abuse and sexual violence, body image, feminism and sex, etc. She also forgot to mention the existence of Twat Chat, in which I am also devotedly involved, the trans-inclusive “female” sexuality discussion group that focuses on these exact issues: sexism and its constraints on empowered expressions of female sexual desire.

There is no argument that historically (and presently) sex and sexuality have been controlled by, invested in, and oppressed by systems of patriarchal sexist power exerted on the female body. Yet organizations like SQUIRM and Twat Chat exist to reclaim desire and expression that is not granted us, and to empower us through such free expression. And honestly, I don’t know a better way to battle such perpetual oppression than by showing how unafraid we are to be sexual, to feel sexy, and to come as loud as we possible can. It’s definitely a lot more fun than just sitting around and complaining about it.

—Kristy Lilas ’06