24 comments

Bml7864December 11, 2024

If your power decreases with age and experience, it isn't power. If anything age and expert should increase your power.

starlight_chaserDecember 12, 2024

This is true but ageism in other fields exists too, unfortunately, and women are seen as less capable and useful when they age despite the knowledge and experience they’ve developed.

Bml7864December 12, 2024

True but not at like 30.

babygrandpianoDecember 11, 2024

Words to live by!

I just posted something similar in the Lily Phillips thread. If your ability to feed and house yourself is dependent upon men finding you sexually desirable, you have no power.

dust_cloud86December 11, 2024

Relying on pleasing someone to survive is being a slave.

radarladalDecember 12, 2024

If something is truly empowering, it will be enacted and enjoyed by people with existing power. Are the world’s rich and powerful doing it? No? Then how can it really be empowering.

LadybugStardust [OP]December 12, 2024

Are the world’s rich and powerful doing it?

Well, to be fair, the world's rich and powerful are notorious for doing all kinds of freaky, depraved sex shit. The average billionaire has done a whole lot worse than any run-of-the-mill stripper or prostitute will ever do.

TheChaliceIsMightierJK 4evaDecember 12, 2024

Yeah but they do it TO people, they don't have it done to them.

LadybugStardust [OP]December 12, 2024

they don't have it done to them

A lot of them do. Many rich and powerful men are very turned on by being degraded, and will pay top dollar for it.

asmahanDecember 12, 2024

Yes, they are paying for it, not being paid to provide it. They are the customer, they are the employer. Even if they're paying to be degraded, they still are the one with all the power. The service-provider/employee is expected to do whatever to meet their needs.

StrawberryCoughDecember 12, 2024

Don't let anyone tell you that Femdom isn't service work. The customer is still always right, but with extra steps.

TheChaliceIsMightierJK 4evaDecember 12, 2024

But it's still fulfilling their own fantasy, not fulfilling someone else's. They are still paying someone to play a role for them, they aren't playing the role themselves.

AngrySlothDecember 11, 2024

OP, your post title is so good in itself I saved it for later

JACKANDJILLDecember 12, 2024

I'm okay with the idea of viewing sex as power.

But there's nothing empowering about sex work. If you weren't forced into it, you squandered your power choosing to participate in it. It won't end well and you'll be scarred for life.

dust_cloud86December 12, 2024(Edited December 12, 2024)

I disagree if you feel like talking about it. Lowering your boundaries isn't power, it's inherently submission. And attempting to utilize sex as power means assigning a price to your body and safety, giving it up to a man in exchange for something.

StrawberryCoughDecember 12, 2024

The most powerful thing is only having sex that you are sexually desirous of.

dust_cloud86December 13, 2024

Not being violated isn't gaining power, it's just not being violated and exploited.

StrawberryCoughDecember 13, 2024

It's a lot more than not being violated to control your own sexuality. There's an active element as well. There is definitely power in freedom beyond socially mandated chastity.

dust_cloud86December 13, 2024

By that logic, women who don't want sex are less free than women who do.

dust_cloud86December 12, 2024

I read the comment and post as referring to power, not power as in powerful emotions.

JACKANDJILLDecember 12, 2024

Happy to talk about it. What is and isn't power can often be subjective or even semantics. I just personally have no problem with the "power" phrasing as long as it's not being used to justify being a prostitute.

How many of the most powerful men in the world have risked their lives, fortunes and reputations over sex? More than I can count. So if someone wanted to argue that sex is a source of power, I'm not going to object.

The more important point to me is what do we teach our girls and young women about how to use that power. Or value. Or whatever you want to call it. I'm not going to get hung up on the descriptor used to communicate the fact that sex is more important to men than anything else in the world.

So should our girls and young women use this "power" to sell their bodies for cash? I'm sure we agree the answer is hell no.

Should they value themselves enough to expect the love, respect, commitment, time, attention, money, etc of a good man? I think so. If you see that as giving up their body in "exchange" for something, I suppose that is true. Relationships are always going to be an exchange of some sort. If it's an exchange of positive qualities though, I think that's healthy and good.

[Deleted]December 14, 2024