An American Oedipus

In the early 20^th century there was some form of a “lesbian” movement. Women partook in intense friendships with one another that developed into some form of physical relations and before long they were living a happy men-less life together. Very Kissing Jessica Stein.

These intense homogeneous friendships have been documented throughout history as lesbian relationships. And while I have very little (O.K, zero,) experience in a lesbian relationship, I can’t help but question if that was in fact was these women were experiencing. Two people (women in this case) clearly bonded very strongly on an emotional level. And this emotional level was so intense, that they were looking for another way to express it, to further develop it. To have some kind of tangible evidence of the bond they share.

But is that sex? If sex is about expressing a friendship, then why is the term “friendship” literally interchangeable with the word “platonic?” Isn’t sex about expressing the tangible, the physical, and not trying to personify a platonic bond?

Since then, Americans have experienced the black and white “I’m-wearing-his-pin” relationships of the Eisenhower era, the spontaneous free love of the hippies and the “fuck-whoever’s-at-the-club” attitude of the sexual revolution.

Many feminists say we’re regressing back to the gender roles of the fifties, and I do see some truth in that. But I think a younger generation of feminists can see that we’ve gone back even further.

We are fucking our friends.

There, I said it.

We are fucking our friends because they’re there, we trust them, and we care about them. But does that mean we should have sex with them? I mean we trust and care about our family too, but even Oedipus didn’t mean to screw his mama. So what makes us think this is a good idea? What makes us think this is any less taboo?

I don’t know if it has a historical name yet, but we’re in a sexual movement. We are in a cluster-fuck of fuck-buddies.

Maybe we should just poke our eyes out.