Sunday, February 21, 2016

Sexuality, Strength and Power





Ponder this: a human uterus in active labor exerts the equivalent of 397 pounds of pressure per square foot with each contraction. In fact, all things being equal, which of course, they rarely are, your uterus, my uterus, most every human uterus on the planet, has evolved to be the single strongest, most powerful muscle in the human body. And not surprisingly, I haven’t heard many people whining about that fact, since the very existence of our species - at least for the time being - pretty much depends upon our collective uteri being sufficiently awesome, tough, and brawny enough to be able to do their jobs.

On the other hand… when it comes to women being physically powerful, demonstrably muscular and visibly strong in contexts outside of reproduction, apparently, there’s a problem, at least in terms of what our current body-shaming culture is willing to put up with. If you doubt this, just lend your ear to the body-shaming critique unleashed against Serena Williams, by most accounts the most powerful and spectacular woman tennis player of all time. If form really follows function, it’s no wonder that Serena’s success at the pinnacle of her game remains legendary.

While it used to be bedrock “truth” that thinness - a lack of visible body fat - was the arbitrary standard that all women were expected to achieve in order to be considered sexually attractive, these days, there are other ways to instigate the body shamers’ wrath. Judging from their critique of Serena Williams, we of the uterus-having crowd shouldn’t be too toned, powerful, splendidly muscular elsewhere – at least not in ways that the rest of the world can see.