Female Sexual Self-Revelation

If I didn’t enjoy sexual self-revelation I wouldn’t maintain a group of sites focused on human sexuality. One writer suggests that in erotic self-exposure women risk - not establishing real communion with the audience but - known as the possessor of a single sexual attribute or quirk:

The writer Daphne Merkin offers the perfect cautionary tale about the dangers of giving the public Too Much Information. In 1996 Merkin published an essay in The New Yorker describing the erotic pleasure she found in spanking. Her sensational article hardly stalled her career; if anything it increased her name recognition. Understandably Ms. Merkin doesn’t regret her essay, which she continues to believe to be “both intellectually and emotionally daring.” But she kids herself when she says “I’m known more for the rigor of my thinking … than I am for revelations about my erotic preferences.” Her article is still the major fact of her public identity; she will forever and always be Daphne Likes-to-Be-Spanked Merkin. This is not because the shocked public wants Ms. Merkin to cover herself up. It is because Ms. Merkin has invited us to know her by information that has far more power than her insights into Virginia Woolf.

Scenes From the Exhibitionists