Five reasons to be critical of PIV.

Links June 29, 2017 Comments: 13

1) PIV naturally puts women at a disadvantage. In addition, that which is natural, isn’t necessarily good (natural fallacy). Recreational sex is not the same as reproductive sex, so the “naturalness” of PIV is a bad argument either way.
If we assume that we live under patriarchy (with Rape Culture on top), PIV isn’t just harmless fun. It puts women at the mercy of men.

2) There are much fewer women who orgasm from vaginal intercourse in comparison to men. According to this study, only 12 % of the women interviewed (n = 19 307) had reached an orgasm from PIV only. I believe that this is a quite common occurrence. Vaginal orgasm is probably a myth anyways and PIV doesn’t effectively stimulate the clitoris or just passively does so.

3) There are several health risks associated with hormonal birth control, such as breast, cervical and liver cancer (see this for reference). There are also risks for cardiovascular disease (see this). Apart from that, oral contraceptives have several unpleasant side-effects. And then there are the costs for oral contraceptives.

4) PIV is defined as “normal sex” and is put above all other sex practices (including homosexual ones), although, apparently, it does benefit men more than it does benefit women. So the fact that it is institutionalized as “default sex” is also a good reason to be critical of it.

5) If het sex is defined by the male perspective and PIV is seen as compulsory, then how meaningful is the consent of women to PIV at a larger, societal scale? Why aren’t more women refusing PIV, given all the disadvantages? I mean, how can we talk about (meaningful) consent if there is a societal, patriarchy-induced pressure to engage in PIV?
That’s why radical feminists critically examine PIV. It looks like this is a patriarchic tool and if we assume that there is, indeed, a coercive aspect to it in society at large, then that would put PIV somewhere on the rape spectrum.

It’s also interesting that men don’t seem to bother about all the disadvantages women take upon themselves. They’re never discussed.

13 thoughts on “Five reasons to be critical of PIV.”

  1. Sundazed June 29, 2017 at 22:05

    This list was very interesting and contained useful information to take away.
    Something that buggers the jesus out of me is that most people in this culture, in this society, (this is true for people who claim labels like pansexual or demisexuals or whatever too) is that they see intercourse as sex and anything else as some kind of foreplay.
    This is so annoying.
    There are many ways to have sex and stimulate one another to feel good and reach orgasms and so on but its also sex. Its not just “foreplay” or “afterplay” or “fooling around”.
    I wish people could snap out of this insane idea that only intercourse is sex.

    • Francois Tremblay June 30, 2017 at 00:25

      The shit I get for talking about PIV is of a magnitude never seen for any other topic.

      • Sundazed June 30, 2017 at 07:25

        Ah. That is quite ridiculous of those who gives you the shit but I guess not to be surprised about it since we live in a culture that values PIV as the only “true” form of sex.

        It seems like a touchy subject even among feminists themselves.

        • Francois Tremblay June 30, 2017 at 07:31

          Really? I haven’t really noticed that particularly. Although it’s not really talked about very much.

          • Sundazed June 30, 2017 at 07:37

            Well, the times i see it come up on blogs I follow it have often gone into a free-for all fight in the comments sections.
            I guess it can also be the fact that ‘discussing on the internet’ is often subject to be a lot of misunderstandings due to how people express themselves through the written word or how one have interpreted someones written word.

  2. sellmaeth June 30, 2017 at 13:43

    So you deleted all the insulting comments?

    It is really interesting how defensive some women get over PIV. If nothing else, that reaction would be a good reason to take a critical look at it.

    I mean, there’s people who say we shouldn’t eat grain. I like eating bread, but somehow, I never feel a need to go and yell at someone who blogs about how we should not eat bread because gluten is bad for you.

    And bread is really ingrained in our culture. It’s mentioned in prayers. Still, people don’t seem to get so defensive over it.

    One wonders why that’s the case with PIV. If it is just some lifestyle thing some people like to do for fun, why the need to get so defensive over it? Why not just ignore the criticism?

    • Francois Tremblay June 30, 2017 at 15:01

      Eh, there’s still plenty of people to argue about diets. But yeah, it’s not just a lifestyle thing. It lies at the epicenter of male entitlement, natalism, etc.

  3. Nicole June 30, 2017 at 16:37

    Good to see this being written about, I was grumbling about this a few months ago – I shoulder most of the risks of PIV. The risk of contraceptives, or the risk of getting pregnant and potentially having a baby, having a miscarriage or getting an abortion. The risk of getting a UTI which often involves antibiotics which often lead to thrush and the (expensive) treatments for that. Yet for him the considerations are basically all pleasure and very minimal risk!

    • Francois Tremblay July 1, 2017 at 00:35

      Yes, there is a dramatic asymmetry of risks in this situation. Women take most of the risks and men get most of the rewards. IMO that alone makes it a feminist issue.

      • sellmaeth July 1, 2017 at 17:36

        Definitely. And while many women want to continue to have PIV, I think the option of just not doing it should be brought up more often.

        I bet some dudes who “don’t like condoms” would change their minds if the answer to that statement was more often than not “Ok, we can just abstain from PIV, then”.

        • Francois Tremblay July 2, 2017 at 00:28

          Definitely! And that’s what should be happening.

  4. Ophidian September 5, 2019 at 23:28

    I’ve never understood why heterosexual women in particular keep up the facade that PIV is fulfilling and one of the greatest things a man can provide for a woman. And that a man’s ability to do so is relative to the size or function of his penis.

    There is also the natalist factor to it as well. Why do women continually allow themselves to get pregnant when many in the First World are in a position to reject pregnancy and motherhood? And why do we as a society allow people who come from other countries to do the same, when their cultures heavily incline this sort of behavior?

    • Francois Tremblay September 5, 2019 at 23:51

      Because they feel like their life is incomplete without it, or that abortion is just not an option…

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