January 8, 2010

Sexism in Pot Culture - Sex Sessions

A while ago I read a story on WashingtonCityPaper.com's Sexist blog section, about the small role women play in pot culture. They talked about the possible reasons they thought less women actively participated in the campaign to end prohibition. Their conclusion was that pot culture is dude culture, not because women don't like weed, but because the the media and advertisers in the culture use images of scantily clad women too often.

Just recently I stumbled onto another discovery following along a similar trend. NORML just launched a "Women's Alliance". The Alliance has a five-point mission statement, the last of which is the opposition to "...sexual exploitation and objectification of women in pot-culture and business marketing". The group's coordinator Sabrina Fendrick had this to say in an interview with
CelebStoner.Com, "These ads send the message that a woman's place in pot culture is for the viewing pleasure of heterosexual men. These pictures are not only degrading, they seriously hurt any attempt to legitimize this movement within mainstream America."

Here at Baked Life our readers are equally split between stoner chicks and stoner dudes. So even though we agree Fendricks might be pointing out a noteworthy phenomena, she's going at it all the wrong way. A picture of an "attractive" or "cool" girl smoking from a bong isn't weird at all. And referring to it as degrading seems insulting to women. People, both male and female, like looking at girls that's not weird and there's no reason to discourage it.

But Baked Life still wants to help solve the issue that some women, like Sabrina Fendricks, feel left out. Society as a whole decides what is "attractive", but that doesn't mean that advertisers and the media always have to cater to the majority. There's a whole world out there. So Baked Life has decided it is going to take the first step to solving the issue of "Sexism". That's right, even though this is just a marijuana blog, it is going to end sexism. And we're going to do it with the philosophy that "we need more not less". That's why Baked Life is adding a new blog section called "Sex Sessions".

Sex is important to everyone, and it's not talked about enough. Sex Sessions will cover many popular sex topics, myths, and conflicts. The idea is if we open up the dialogue on sex, so people can talk honestly and hopefully more accurately about it, it will become less taboo and one sided. Which is actually the same thing we try to do with marijuana. Why should such a large part of our lives be hidden away. Why has sex gotten so dirty. Even google thinks sex is the same thing as porn. The first search result you get for "sex" is a porn site. Does porn really cover the broadest spectrum of what sex really is. Hell no.Sex is arguably the purest form of physical communication, it's innate in all humans, but that doesn't mean it's simple.

So keep checking in as we talk about all kinds of topics, form having sex high and what weed does to your sex drive, to defining what "sexy" really means and why we have such a flourishing porn industry. We'll inevitably touch on the "L" word a few times too; by which I mean love, though lesbians will probably also come up. Of course we'll also be talking about the various differences between and desires of men and women. Both in relationships and in bed.

If you think you can contribute email bakedlife@gmail.com

Contact: Bakedlife@gmail.com

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