Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Suck Jobs?



Does this term exist? It would be the opposite of blow jobs, I assume, and more refinedly it is called cunnilingus. The big thing in the popular culture is blow jobs which are oral sex performed on the penis. I don't think the same term covers oral sex performed on the clitoris. At least blowing probably wouldn't do very much to the recipient unless something like a hand-held hairdryer was used. Though of course blow jobs are really suck jobs, too. See how confusing sex can be!

The seeds for this post are in something Atrios has on Rush Limbaugh. Supposedly Rush has been foaming at the mouth about Al Gore's proposed entry into the media. Rush fears (or hopes?) that the planned liberal media would be all about blow jobs.

Which of course is as silly as most of Rush's ramblings. But what caught my feminist interest about this whole thing was the question whether blow jobs are an egalitarian form of sex. Does the giver enjoy the gift as much as the receiver? More? Less? Is the charm of blow jobs at least partially in their one-sidedness? And if so, what does this tell us about the underlying mores?

I'm not saying that women don't enjoy blow jobs or that there is anything wrong with them. Quite the reverse. But I've read too many trolls on feminist sites telling women to shut up and get on their knees to wonder if at least for some men the issues are not in simple loving giving-and-receiving.

And why is Rush not yelling about Al Gore planning to show the world nothing but suck jobs? Questions, questions, and none of them will make me loved and approved. Oh well, it's all in a day's work of goddessing.