Saturday, May 29, 2010

Recycling Tarantulas and Sex Tapes

I'm thinking about tarantulas and how they freak my shit. I wrote a short story long ago about a 29 year old who found herself at a teenager party. She ended up petting a tarantula and putting her nipples into the mouth of a 17 year old boy. The story was obviously the young adult writer within my soul clawing to get out. Fast forward to now and I think I have found a way to use a tarantula to even better effect in this revision of my YA novel. I'm also thinking a lot about virginity and the power of young women's sexuality. There is this sex tape out of Kendra, Hugh Hefner's former Girl Next Door. Apparently, she is barely 18 in it, asks many times to not be recorded, and is yet able to be a total come hither sex-pot when not protesting the whole situation. Which sounds entirely age-appropriate to me. And then I read this on The Evil Beet:

Why the Kendra Wilkinson Sex Tape Should Make You Angry


[Kendra's sex tape exploits] that space where young women have discovered and perfected their sexuality and its value, but haven't yet figured out how it's empowering. They just know that it's something people want from them; it's something people expect from them. Something young men expect from them; something, perhaps, that young men haven't learned how to ask for politely. It's uncomfortable and new and everybody's learning, and what happens, more often than not, is that the male partner's desires come first and more forcefully, and the young woman is disrespected and disempowered and left with a sense that she's less valuable and less capable of demanding respect and control than her male counterpart - a sense than lingers into her twenties and beyond, even though she might not recognize it as such.

And I remember being a teenager and a smartass, I remember being hopped up on hormones and Mickey's bigmouths, vulnerable and so young I was convinced I knew exactly what I was doing at every naked moment. I remember it all so well that I'm thinking that I have a lot more work to do and a lot more deep thinking to do on this revision before I hand it in to my editor...

3 comments:

Léna Roy said...

This is great Arlaina - struggling with similar issues but from male POV - want to understand the cultural objectification of women through his character ARC - very HARD!

readingkidsbooks said...

Arlaina this post and your blog in general most definitely leads me to want to read you upcoming novel. Keep us posted on the novel's final name and release date.

Arlaina Tibensky said...

Will do! Thanks for paying attention!
xo