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elfsLast week I dismissed Mary Eberstadt's piece on how our inability to clearly articulate morality about sex translated into zealous moral impulses about food. Eberstadt's article begged too many questions and omitted too many details. morality isn't a substance that flows along channels, where a shortage in one leads to a surfeit in another. Eberstadt oversimplified the question far too readily to have produced a meaningful discussion.
I do think there is merit, however, to another idea: deprived of the impression that they had some control over their destiny, the bluenoses in our country have started to lash out, looking for any outlet they can for their frustrated desire to frustrate desire in others.
I mean consider Eberstadt's article as of a piece with other anti-sex impulses rising around the country. Just weeks after the anti-abortion forces crowed that their blatant terrorist tactics were working, the group Americans for Truth About Homosexuality announced that they were subscribing to and monitoring every gay, lesbian, transgender, poly, and kink-friendly mailing list in the country they could find. Their goal was to target and protest public gatherings of non-normative sex groups and, as they succeed with the anti-abortion movement, force the organizers to spend extra time and money dealing with the press, the police, and health officers.
Don't miss AfT's article castigating the Unitarian Universalist for including "sadomasochism" and "non-monogamy" in a pamphlet for older teenagers trying to understand their sexuality, describing it as "pure evil." The language is becoming less restrained. OneNewsNow characterized a school's decision not to fire a transgender janitor as "outrageous" and added, "The whole idea that someone like this should be in the public schools, of course, is beyond belief."
Then we had Susan James's atrocious ABC report on kinky sex, which followed on our local ABC affiliate, KOMO TV's, hit piece on a private sex club in Seattle. The club is registered as a private social club (imagine that!) and KOMO's objection was that by registering in such a way the club derived the same tax benefits as hunting clubs and even private drinking clubs. The headline read, "Are your tax dollars going to pay for a sex club?" (The KOMO article was so bad KOMO eventually retracted it, and publicity for the Center for a Sex Positive Culture actually led to a significant increase in membership.)
Meanwhile, the right is absolutely lathered that David Ogden has been nominated for a position at the Justice Department because he has worked for pro-pornography groups in the past, defending their 1st Amendment Rights.
I really do hope that all of this recent anti-sex lathering is coincidental, but I have my doubts. Freed from the time-constraining responsibility of carrying water for a failed presidency and desperate for some cause to embrace and vent their excessive anger upon, the forces of repression have returned to their favorite themes of policing your bedroom and your heart.
I do think there is merit, however, to another idea: deprived of the impression that they had some control over their destiny, the bluenoses in our country have started to lash out, looking for any outlet they can for their frustrated desire to frustrate desire in others.
I mean consider Eberstadt's article as of a piece with other anti-sex impulses rising around the country. Just weeks after the anti-abortion forces crowed that their blatant terrorist tactics were working, the group Americans for Truth About Homosexuality announced that they were subscribing to and monitoring every gay, lesbian, transgender, poly, and kink-friendly mailing list in the country they could find. Their goal was to target and protest public gatherings of non-normative sex groups and, as they succeed with the anti-abortion movement, force the organizers to spend extra time and money dealing with the press, the police, and health officers.
Don't miss AfT's article castigating the Unitarian Universalist for including "sadomasochism" and "non-monogamy" in a pamphlet for older teenagers trying to understand their sexuality, describing it as "pure evil." The language is becoming less restrained. OneNewsNow characterized a school's decision not to fire a transgender janitor as "outrageous" and added, "The whole idea that someone like this should be in the public schools, of course, is beyond belief."
Then we had Susan James's atrocious ABC report on kinky sex, which followed on our local ABC affiliate, KOMO TV's, hit piece on a private sex club in Seattle. The club is registered as a private social club (imagine that!) and KOMO's objection was that by registering in such a way the club derived the same tax benefits as hunting clubs and even private drinking clubs. The headline read, "Are your tax dollars going to pay for a sex club?" (The KOMO article was so bad KOMO eventually retracted it, and publicity for the Center for a Sex Positive Culture actually led to a significant increase in membership.)
Meanwhile, the right is absolutely lathered that David Ogden has been nominated for a position at the Justice Department because he has worked for pro-pornography groups in the past, defending their 1st Amendment Rights.
I really do hope that all of this recent anti-sex lathering is coincidental, but I have my doubts. Freed from the time-constraining responsibility of carrying water for a failed presidency and desperate for some cause to embrace and vent their excessive anger upon, the forces of repression have returned to their favorite themes of policing your bedroom and your heart.
