The Black Panthers defined "pussy power" all wrong.
Getting what I want by offering or refusing sex? That often has a lot to do with the pussy--I'll grant you that. But it ain't power. The only thing that's power when push comes to shove is the means to physically back up what one wants.*
Words aren't powerful--they're representative of power [physical capabilities]. Offers & refusals, in the way the Black Panthers were thinking of them, are words. Their definition of this "power" makes no mention of physical backup to my words--so they're defining it wrong. What they refer to ain't power.
So what would "pussy power" be if, for love of alliterations, we wanted to keep the word in use?
"Pussy" is a body part, so I imagine the phrase would be like "elbow power" or "hamstring power." Of course, we waste the phrase once again if a pussy is not actually powerful in the true sense of "power," so let's make sure the pussy actually is powerful:
Is it physically capable of making what I need happen? Is it physically capable of defending me from anything I don't want to happen?
Yes!
I can hit or lift things with my pelvis without causing pain to any external genitalia. Indeed, the hidden-away pussy makes an advantageous, powerful battering ram or hydraulic lift.
So that's "pussy power," defined in a way that actually makes sense. It
1) refers to the part of my body called a "pussy" and
2) refers to power (in an accurate way)
But wait! Where did the sex go? Katie, you used the word "pussy" but your definition has nothing to do with sex!
So it doesn't.
My pussy is just another part of my anatomy, as good for multiple functions as my hand. When I caress a perineum, my hand is "about" sex. It's doing "sex." When I punch a jaw, my hand is "about" something not-sex. It's doing something not-sex.
So it stands for the pussy. That body part is not always about sex, any more than the hand is! (What reasonable person would claim that his or her hand always had something to do with sex? How silly.)
My pussy is something I use for sex when I'm doing sex and something I use for power when I'm "doing power."**
*Please don't take this as an "ablelist" definition of power. You'd be amazed how able the "disabled" or "physically disadvantaged" really are. (Ever seen a person attacked and chased away or mauled by a runt or wounded animal? We, too, are just animals when it comes down to it. We "less capable" social groups are a lot stronger than other people encourage us to think we are.) The class I just got back from teaches people of all statures, ages, & body conditions to fight effectively enough to leave safely from a threat or an attack by an unarmed single assailant.
** That is, backing up my needs by using my body.
Monday, November 6
Pussy Power
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6 comments:
If the thesis here is to refute the Black Panther definition of "pussy power" it would help to link some sort of source.
Aside from that, i tend to think of power as not necessarily restricted to the physical domain. We just had elections, where people/politicians lost and gained power. None of it through physical force. And certainly words, can effect change in a variety of ways. If pens can beat swords, tongues can beat fists ... at least sometimes.
I recently helped a friend and his GF clean his room. The GF was barking orders regarding how things should be handled, and the BF was responsive, while I informed her that "her vagina had no power over me."
So i guess "pussy power" would be about desire trumping physical. If a man wants legal consenting sex, he can't beat it out of her, he has to follow her rules. This woman had no power over me because I had no interest in her Labia Leverage(?).
"Penis Power" while in possession of a similarly alliterative flair, doesn't seem to hold the same powerful weight.
The term also makes no distinction between individual females. Presumably some pussies are more powerful than others, no? Regardless of the level of Kegel training/expertise. Angelina Jolie's PP, vs. Hilary Clinton's PP, vs. a stripper's PP all have varying degrees of effectiveness.
What really bothered me was that...their implication was that this kind of power was the most direct kind of power-for-its-owner a pussy could ever have. And it ain't very direct, what they mentioned. Not nearly as direct or raw as other things the pussy can do on behalf of its owners interests. But those other things were ignored.
So if the phrase, containing the word "power," catches on as some sort of common sense or reality or truth about women yet doesn't actually refer to a very direct kind of power...it implies that that's the best women can do.
If people [falsely] assert that the anatomical parts called "pussies" can't exert any more power than bargaining power, then it implies that women can't manage to exert any power more direct than bargaining power [and that any woman who tries to isn't really a "woman" anyway and therefore is fair game for ostracism, cruel treatment, etc.]
Re: source--
I've been hunting for the place where I originally found out that this phrase had even existed and subsequently that it was popular w/ the Black Panthers. I can't find it. Wish I could. I've found some sites that refer to it, but none that explain it as closely to what I said as that one I found but lost.
Oh, and by the way, if it seems...like a nice thought, but kind of far-fetched, to imply that ordinary women are just as capable of exerting physical power as men (once some teachers have undone can't-do beliefs and shown them exactly what works better for their bodies than traditional for-men fighting techniques), take out your 2007 calendar and set aside one of these dates:
Feb. 10th, 3:45 p.m.
Feb 13th, 8:15 p.m
March 25th, 3:45 p.m.
May 14th, 8:15 p.m
May 19th, 3:45 p.m.
147 W. 25th St.
New York, NY
An in-person look's worth a million words. You'll get what I mean if you see 16 ordinary, formerly wimpy (both in mind and body) women fight to knockout after only about 20 hours of class. Just seeing people do something 100% of the time that didn't previously seem realistic makes it, well, seem realistic. ;-)
In fact, if you'd saw it, suddenly watching the world that used to seem realistic & normal will seem a little weird. Like, "Dude...why aren't they doing what I just saw last weekend? They can. Why aren't they? This is strange."
ELBOW POWER!! w00t
katie, what is this martial arts-type class thing of which you speak? can one still sign up for the actual class?
you're in NYC?
I was assuming that she make ze leetel zhoke wrt "Panther/pussy," but admittedly a lot goes over/through my head these days
Nope--not living in NYC. I just went to IMPACT's NYC chapter's website & found those dates as public-can-watch times.
IMPACT is the name of the organization I did this kind of self-defense through. There are other names that really similar training goes by, though: "model mugging," "padded assailant training," and "adrenaline state training" are the most common. Sometimes, though, you might find a class that's just as good simply being offered as "women's self-defense." Most often, though, those don't give you the "real, frightened-for-your-life fighting at full force" experience that all IMPACT classes (and many "model mugging" classes) do.
I wrote a little more about it over here. Heh. Actually, my writings about my experience last weekend are scattered all over the internet.
Portland's got a demo this weekend if you live there. :-D
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