Extra Cheese

This is going to be a bit cheezy, but I went to the trouble of writing it for the Noe Venable message board, so I might as well post it here too. Just ignore the cheeze and maybe you'll get my point.

Noe's lyrics "You will awaken your sensuality, it is an eventuality" are both thought provoking and very quotable. Its not a complex or new idea--the notion of living passionately, or even "sensually". So many claim that this is their goal. But, the cliche doesn't speak to the point I want to discuss. That being sensuality as it stands in stark contrast to rampant, blaring machismo or art infused with primitive, ugly, "male" sexuality...if that makes sense. It seems like a crime that beautiful, sensitive, sexual, soft n' quiet (?) "female" sensuality is all but nonexistent in comparison to the assertive, prideful, and loud "male" music and art that saturates our culture. (sorry for being vague, but I'm working this out as I go) The power of music created by female artists who plug into all the energy and creativity issuing from their sensuality (sexual desire/awareness + artistic/imaginative intelligence) is awe inspiring (see Noe, Tori Amos, Ani Defranco, and so on). I'm not speaking generally of passionate music written by female artists. I'm thinking of an uber-femininity that far outshines the uber-machismo of popular culture. Yet this more impressive feminine sensuality infects only a fraction of the art we experience. Is it that female sensuality is still subserviant, on a subconsious level, to male sexuality after all these years of progress? How many females continue to hand over their hearts and minds to men when it comes to sex and ideas about sensuality? They hand over their sexual beings as well, falling silent, as if they have nothing to say, as if sex and sensuality is not there for them as well, as if they do not have just as much right to define and feel sex for themselves as men do. As if they are being shouted down. I can't help but wonder how the world would be different if it could experience a flood of creativity, passion, and love from women who awakened their sensuality.