I am afraid that I will need for you to explain this post; otherwise I will be forced to conclude that you are a straight supremacist.
I am a woman. I am a baby boomer. I am a committed feminist. I suck dick and I love it.
That is all.
Another one strongly in Camp #1. And I’m a diehard feminist, dammit. Feminism is supposed to be about giving women the ability to choose for ourselves. And if fellatio is the way I choose to put a shit-eating grin on my (unfortunately hypothetical at the moment) partner’s face, why should anyone get to decide on my behalf that I’m being subjugated? That’s just silly! It makes him happy, it makes me happy, what’s wrong with it?
This is all assuming consensuality, of course. If he’s coercing me into it, that’s a whole other story. And it doesn’t mean that I’m an inferior feminist, it just means that he’s an asshole.
I knew a woman during my university years who’d dated a man who physically forced her to perform fellatio many times, under threat of being beaten up if she didn’t do it (and do it well); he was a thoroughly abusive guy, and she believed him enough from past experience never to try anything like biting. She finally escaped, but now has serious issues with giving oral sex.
I’ve been with several women who got really upset with me that I didn’t enjoy receiving it from them. Fellatio has never been a particularly pleasurable thing to me, and their inability to make my climax that way really seemed to upset them, as if it was a slur on their abilities. There was nothing wrong with their skills, it just didn’t do a lot for me. But afterwards, I felt like I’d told them they were bad in bed. They seemed to view it as a talent to be exercised, a skill that marked them as good at sex.
So, it seems to me that the act is not inherently degrading to women, but that it is thoroughly steeped in the gender politics of relationships, and probably reflects a lot of what’s going on more generally between a particular couple.
My Mom walked in the room when I was burning the Dworkin- I was pretty embarrased.
Yeah- it’s an old joke but it’s so darn versatile! G
Two questions-
do you have a sister?
you do know that goes straight to the baby, doncha? Gewwww! 
Because during cunnilingus, the woman is just lying there while the man is above her, grasping her thighs as though he’s shackling her. She is at the mercy of what he does and does not do with his tongue, making him the controller.
“But hold on! During fellatio, the man is just lying there while the woman is above him, and he’s at the mercy of what she does or doesn’t do!”
But during fellatio, she’s servicing him, making her into his slave.
“Isn’t the man servicing the woman during cunniling–”
SHUT UP! YOU’RE OPPRESSING ME!
(Ah, isn’t it wonderful how anything can be turned into a symbol of female oppression? )
I don’t think there’s anything inherently political about any sex act, but since we’re all living in a society we all have all kinds of social/gender/political baggage. It may sometimes be difficult for some people to escape from this or to seperate it from their individual situation.
In American society in general I think performing oral sex is often treated as an unpleasant, degrading, or even humiliating act. This seems especially true of performing fellatio, and I think this is because it is a view that men have encouraged. Not all men, sure, maybe not even most men, but there is a very vocal group that enjoys saying things like “Shut up, cocksucker!” and “Suck my dick, you bitch!” So guys, the next time you hear someone say something like that, remember – they’re openly promoting the message that performing fellatio is a kind of shameful punishment. If I were a man and I wanted to get more oral sex (and it seems that most men do), I’d try to figure out why so many of my brothers were so keen on making the act seem unpleasant. And then I’d try to figure out a way to get them to knock it off.
So, what are you doing later tonight?
Stoid and Eva Luna pretty much covered my point of view on the matter.
I strongly believe in having the freedom to choose (not just for women, for everyone) and I enjoy choosing lots of oral sex, giving and receiving.
I think that so-called feminists who have a problem with felatio aren’t as much feminists as they are men-haters. Yes the two overlap but I have a feeling there are a few sensical feminists (many have posted their thoughts in the thread already).
I think these insults are used most often by a male to a male. It implies “cocksucking” as a gay trait, and is intended to insult a straight person by referring to them as “gay” or homosexual. Most people I know that use these terms use it in this manner, they don’t call females such names.
previously posted by tracer:
Because during cunnilingus, the woman is just lying there while the man is above her, grasping her thighs as though he’s shackling her. She is at the mercy of what he does and does not do with his tongue, making him the controller.
That’s not the only way to do it 
so tell me what the gender politics are if he’s tied to the bed and she’s kneeling over him making him perform cunnilingus on her?
If politics are anywhere near your bedroom your’re doing it wrong.
I don’t like the feminist idea that men are evil. I’ve always thought the original idea that feminism was about choice to be a good one except that when I chose to stay home and raise my daughter instead of farming her off to daycare and getting a career I was treated like I had set the movement back 50 years. Despite my stay at home status and the fact that I also swallow I didn’t marry a cave man and am hardly demeaned or dominated. Marriage is about the pairing of equals!
My love is brilliant, independent feminist. She goes down on me regularly. I don’t demand it of her, I don’t really ask it of her. It seems to get her hot. God, I love that woman.
BTW, I go down on her all time, because she likes it, and so do I.
Not that you asked.
I agree that this is the most common usage, but I’ve heard them applied to women as well – especially things along the lines of “suck my dick!”
Even if they don’t, it’s hardly a ringing endorsement of fellatio. Is the average straight woman going to be particularly keen to perform an act if it is associated in her mind primarily with “degrading insult for gay men”? Probably not. Not even if she has no particular ill feelings towards gay men themselves.
So again, my suggestion for men of any sexual orientation who want to get more head is that you all do your best to make sure that fellatio has no common negative associations.
Just thought I’d point out that some women feel it’s demeaning and love it for that reason.
Which brings to mind this ancient Doonesbury strip. (Nichole, the one on the right, was the feminist character in Doonesbury back in 1971.)
When did Boopsie have the breast reduction surgery?
Debating a blow job. Is nothing sacred?
This is GD. Nothing is sacred.
Heh. No one complains about sacredness when we debate religion.