This comment is from Birdie-El on the post “Why Can’t We Stop Policing Sex?“
We can’t stop policing sex because somehow, in 2012, it is the most taboo act in America. Just look at how we critique and rate movies. Gore is awesome, but any more than modest nudity is enough to earn a film an X-rating.
In their most extreme, respectively:
• The far left can’t stop policing sex because they find it threatening, subversive, and by most accounts, to be an act worse than many types of criminal violence. They view women as children incapable of making their own choices, who need to be protected from the big, bad men who all want to “hurt” them and who all think with their dicks.
• The far right can’t stop policing sex because they find the idea of anyone other than a member of a heterosexual cisgender married couple performing an act for reproduction purposes to be morally repugnant and a means of facilitating widespread societal decay. They view women as sluts incapable of controlling themselves unless every act of sex introduces the potential of pregnancy as “punishment,” and the GLBT community a group of disgusting brutes who spread disease and are one step away from pedophilia and bestiality at all times.
The greatest irony of all is, despite how much members of each extreme profess to hate each other, their views often coincide in lockstep. For example, Andrea Dworkin and Rick Santorum would be bedfellows, bosom buddies, allies in all but title and label on the question of porn. At their core, each side distrusts human beings so deeply that they want to strip us of any sexual agency whatsoever.
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photo: jeffwilcox / flickr
Excellent point in the last paragraph, about the similarities between far left and far right on sexual issues. The political spectrum curves around on itself – the further you go out on the left or right, the more the two sides begin to look like each other. The classic case is Hitler and Stalin, who were ideologically on “opposite” ends of the spectrum but in practice ruled in very similar fashion. Similarly, both Dworkin/McKinnon and extreme cultural conservatives want people to police their own internal thoughts and desires to rid their brains of evils. That suggests a pretty totalitarian worldview.
Michelle each day in North America you can view movies, TV shows etc with a ton of violence, killings, murders, etc.
But janet jackons boob falls out and people virtually lost their freaking minds. Huge fines followed.
It is taboo because those in power still hold it sacred that has to be regulated.
As I mentioned before in a different post, that we are constantly pushing boundaries, and some of these pushing is detrimental whether you believe it or not. You are right, about the viewing of tons of violence, killings etc. and that’s been achieved through continual pushing and thrill/novelty seeking (yeah increased level of violence is a novelty for a lot of people)…. And all of this creates desensitization…what’s norm now, won’t be a norm tomorrow. Where does it end? College students and young adults today are rioting for no good reason…unheard of before. They seem to think violence is part… Read more »
Because rioting before would probably get your legs busted by the cops or someone in power. Nudity itself should be benign, it should have zero impact on the mind of adults because it has zero impact on the mind of kids. Her nip slip was one of the biggest mockery’s of the U.S.A anyone could ask for, and made other countries assume it to be a nation of puritans. If it was a sexual act I could understand the uproar, but a nipple? Puhleeezzzz you can see that at the beach if you’re lucky. The only way a child or… Read more »
“College students and young adults today are rioting for no good reason…unheard of before.”
Wait…what? Can you point me to any era in which middle-aged adults and above regarde the young adults of their day as models of good behavior couth-ness? Perhaps the 60’s, when hippies were considered a polite, orderly bunch of young people…
‘The Janet Jackson boob fallout was unacceptable because it was during the Superbowl, deemed a family event…’
There is an irony here. The ‘family’ and the female breast are inextricably linked.
“College students and young adults today are rioting for no good reason…unheard of before. ”
Read the news. They’ve got good reasons.
Sex is the most taboo act in America? Oh please. 3 to 17 year olds have access to p0rn…no longer do you need proof of majority of age (18 to 21) to access p0rn, like the olden days of driving to rent videos and having to show ID for it. And if you have an email account, which is everybody, including elementary school students; it’s most likely flooded with p0rn and links to cam girls; searching these online is easy and coming across them accidentally is easy too. This is where our generation of children are learning about sex/p0rn for… Read more »
“At their core, each side distrusts human beings so deeply that they want to strip us of any sexual agency whatsoever.” The days before Internet, if you wanted to view porn — you had to drive and rent videos and show proof of age of majority (18 or 21). That law is a joke now. Everyone with access to Internet, which is anyone and everyone, can view porn 24/7 and stream videos — that means 3 to 17 year olds; anyone who can type S.E.X. or P.O.R.N. (not difficult to remember or spell). And if you have an email account(s),… Read more »
Oh yes, computer games and porn are responsible for the troubles of the world. 13 year olds never raped 5 year olds before porn was common. What exactly is your point?
Frustrating, yes? We’ve got it all wrong.