Dirty Sex, Do You Like it? Do Straight's Like it?
Slate's senior editor Dahlia Lithwick has written an insightful article about a new book" by Martha Nussbaum, a professor of law and philosophy at the University of Chicago, titled "From Disgust to Humanity." The book takes a thorough look at why bigots, such as GOP Rep. Nancy Elliott, tend to be against equal rights for gays: because they simply find the act of gay sex disgusting.
ADAMFOXIE BLOG: IAM not sure wether I entirely agree with Dahlia's approach. The truth for most of us that enjoy sex, the dirtier the better. But also one have to ask: Is straight sex clean??? Having a baby clean? What is the difference?? only prejudice!!! Im gong to quote David(not from FB) on his views on the subject which are very similar to mines.
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"They are encountering the same saliva, feces, blood and semen, . . . Is male-on-female sex somehow cleaner?"
This points out the critical flaw in Nussbaum's theory. Further, the ritual purity codes that religious homophobia uses to excuse itself, also express disgust for heterosexual intercourse. As I've told homophobes, the very first curse in the Bible directed at humans, specifically targets the product of heterosexual intercourse (Genesis 3).
Additional flaws include the fact that homophobes can and do change through reason and discussion, that celibate gays are just as harassed and hated, and the argument homophobes consistently use that implies that homosex is more pleasurable than hetsex (if people were free to have gaysex, they'd all become gay).
On that point, Nussbaum's statement "much of the anti-gay argument is bound up in feces and saliva, germs, contagion and blood" really isn't accurate. The dominant theme in anti-gay rhetoric is "everyone will become gay if they try it" meme. The ick factor is usually only raised when every other argument has failed.
I witnessed one homophobe play the ick card (by posting links to gay kink porn labeled "this is what gay really means") in an on-line debate, only to offend several of her allies to the point that one said "I finally get how ugly my prejudice really is".
While some few amateur homophobes may have an obsessive/compulsive fixation on 'icky' - most are articulating very different states of mind.
In the case of politicians and professional homophobes like Nancy Elliott and Maggie Gallagher, in my opinion, disgust has little to do with it; they are simply saying whatever they have to say to acquire power over other people. For them, this is how they make their living, and if they were not bashing us over sex, they'd be bashing someone else over something else.
I believe we need to work to get mental health experts to recognize that prejudice of any kind is a mental illness; sometimes paranoid delusion, but often sociopathic in nature."
POSTED BY: DAVID | MAR 8, 2010 12:16:22 PM
ADAMFOXIE BLOG: IAM not sure wether I entirely agree with Dahlia's approach. The truth for most of us that enjoy sex, the dirtier the better. But also one have to ask: Is straight sex clean??? Having a baby clean? What is the difference?? only prejudice!!! Im gong to quote David(not from FB) on his views on the subject which are very similar to mines.
_______________________
________________________________
"They are encountering the same saliva, feces, blood and semen, . . . Is male-on-female sex somehow cleaner?"
This points out the critical flaw in Nussbaum's theory. Further, the ritual purity codes that religious homophobia uses to excuse itself, also express disgust for heterosexual intercourse. As I've told homophobes, the very first curse in the Bible directed at humans, specifically targets the product of heterosexual intercourse (Genesis 3).
Additional flaws include the fact that homophobes can and do change through reason and discussion, that celibate gays are just as harassed and hated, and the argument homophobes consistently use that implies that homosex is more pleasurable than hetsex (if people were free to have gaysex, they'd all become gay).
On that point, Nussbaum's statement "much of the anti-gay argument is bound up in feces and saliva, germs, contagion and blood" really isn't accurate. The dominant theme in anti-gay rhetoric is "everyone will become gay if they try it" meme. The ick factor is usually only raised when every other argument has failed.
I witnessed one homophobe play the ick card (by posting links to gay kink porn labeled "this is what gay really means") in an on-line debate, only to offend several of her allies to the point that one said "I finally get how ugly my prejudice really is".
While some few amateur homophobes may have an obsessive/compulsive fixation on 'icky' - most are articulating very different states of mind.
In the case of politicians and professional homophobes like Nancy Elliott and Maggie Gallagher, in my opinion, disgust has little to do with it; they are simply saying whatever they have to say to acquire power over other people. For them, this is how they make their living, and if they were not bashing us over sex, they'd be bashing someone else over something else.
I believe we need to work to get mental health experts to recognize that prejudice of any kind is a mental illness; sometimes paranoid delusion, but often sociopathic in nature."
POSTED BY: DAVID | MAR 8, 2010 12:16:22 PM
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