S and M is only the expression in the bedroom of an oppressive-submissive relation which can happen also in the kitchen or at the factory, can happen between people of any gender. There is obviously something titillating about these relationships, but it isn't the sexual components that makes them ugly, they're uglier elsewhere. Nothing sexual is depraved. Only cruelty is depraved, and that's another matter.
Interpretation
The quote discusses how power dynamics in relationships, such as BDSM, can manifest outside the bedroom and highlights that cruelty, not sexuality, is what is truly depraved.
Marilyn French's quote explores the complexities of relationships characterized by power imbalances, such as those found in BDSM. While there can be excitement in these expressions of dominance and submission, the real ugliness lies not in the sexual aspects but in the cruelty that may arise from unequal power dynamics. Sexuality itself is not depraved; rather, it is the acts of cruelty and oppression that should be scrutinized, emphasizing the importance of consent and mutual respect in all interactions.
In practice
In a lecture about healthy relationships, this quote can illustrate the importance of consent and respect.
Later, she would remember these years, and realize with astonishment that she had, by fifteen, decided on most of the assumptions she would carry for the rest of her life: that people were essentially not evil, that perfection was death, that life was better than order and a little chaos good for the soul. Most important, this life was all. Unfortunately, she forgot these things, and had to remember them the hard way.
To nourish children and raise them against odds is in any time, any place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons.
In a great gasp, puts her head in her hands again and cries as if her throat were a cave, as if the howling winds came from her belly, she cries like a storm that will never end.
Women are afraid in a world in which almost half the population bears the guise of the predator, in which no factor - age, dress, or color - distinguishes a man who will harm a woman from one who will not.
When they kept you out it was because you were black; when they let you in, it is because you are black. That's progress?
'I hate discussions of feminism that end up with who does the dishes,' she said. So do I. But at the end, there are always the damned dishes.
He feared me as many men fear women: because their mistresses (or their wives) understand them. They are scarcely adult, some men: they wish women to understand them, and to that end they tell them all their secrets; and then, when they are properly understood, they hate their women for understanding them.
Empathy isn’t just something that happens to us — a meteor shower of synapses firing across the brain — it’s also a choice we make: to pay attention, to extend ourselves.
In grief, words are a poor consolation - silence and agonizing tears are all that is left the sufferer.
I don't want to be your other half. I believe that one and one make two.
Homosexuality is like the weather. It just is.
Mr. Bennet, how can you abuse your own children in such a way? You take delight in vexing me. You have no compassion for my poor nerves." "You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these last twenty years at least.
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