in fact, the most recent debacle in terms of essentializing came straight out of the third wave inspired sex positive feminist crowd where a woman blogger was denounced as a "faux ho". it was really quite hilarious to watch all these sex positive feminist sex workers going on and on about how there was no one way to be a sex worker, and everyone's experiences and practices and beliefs about sex work was different, but dayum, we know a faux ho when we see one.
.....
Some time ago, I stopped following the trench warfare-like proceedings of the feminist bloganschauung so I missed this recent firefight.
But nothing escapes the unblinking eye; a Google search for 'faux ho' + 'sex positive' revealed this:
*Speaking of Faux Ho Bloggers, What About Amber Rhea?*
<snip>
Amber is a smart woman who's obviously thought a lot about both images and language, and as such, I find it impossible to believe that it's an accident that she makes herself look like a stripper online. Of course, Amber doesn't actually lie and say that she's a professional stripper- she's wisely left herself plenty of plausible deniability.
It's as though you had an online persona where you describe yourself as a pilot and post photos of yourself in uniform at airports, hang out in forums for pilots, and debate issues related to commercial flight, and then look innocent and surprised when people assume you're a real licensed pilot. No, no- you simply enjoy playing a pilot in flight simulator computer games at home, and have no idea how anyone could have been confused.
I believe Amber purposefully misleads her casual readers so they will give her opinions on sex work more weight that they perhaps deserve. As many have pointed out in the Alexa scandal, being a sex worker is quite stylish right now, and I've long seen Amber as grasping at the hipness, eager to gain status for her online presence with insinuations that she gyrates for cash. That's pretty offensive to those of us who've taken the real social risks of being marked for life as fallen sluts.
[...]
Link (warning: NSFW blogger pic with bootastic action) --
<http://www.feminisnt.com/2009/speaking-of-faux-ho-bloggers-what-about-amber-rhea/>
You know you're in trouble when plausible deniability is pulled from the attic of weary phrases. The besieged Amber never lied and yet, in some sub textual sense, she apparently did. Your denials condemn you, Robespierre insisted.
These skirmishes happen so often, and splinter into factions and sub-factions with such dizzying speed you need a process chart to keep it all clear.
Well, I guess I'm going to have to read Butler's critique of social constructionists to make sense of it all.
.d.