2006 Agenda: Mind Your Own Business 2 Comments
J.T. Benjamin of ERWA fame has a great idea:
Mind your own fucking business.
“…And what is this theme? How must we respond to the Holy Terrors’ War On Whoopie? Four words.
Mind Your Own Business.
It’s firm. It’s assertive. It’s simple. It’s “Get The Government Out Of Our Private Lives.” It’s Freedom. It’s Liberty. It’s All-American.
It’s Ann Landers saying, “Dear Concerned: M.Y.O.B.” It’s Hank Williams singing, “Why don’t you mind your own business, so you won’t be minding mine.” You can’t get more All-American than Ann and Hank.
Of course, regarding child pornography and sexual assault, we all need to crack down, but when it comes to monitoring the sex lives of consenting adults, we have to say just four simple words.
Mind Your Own Business…”
(“From the Dec-Jan edition of ERWA,” All Worked Up And Then Some)
Up for a rant? Read on…
Sexual freedom in the U.S. rests on three things: the separation of church and state, the First Amendment right to free speech, and the Fourth Amendment right to privacy. (Some pro-forced pregnancy judges believe that the 4th doesn’t imply a right to privacy; you read it and tell me. Without a right to privacy, why would any search be unreasonable? It’s the violation of that recognized, everyday right that makes certain searches unreasonable.)
The separation of church and state is necessary to our continued sexual freedom because a sex-positive religious faction has yet to take political power in the U.S. Sex between any given number of people (1 or greater, and if you think about it, you damn well can be between yourself. It’s not bad grammar, it’s a jilling euphemism, dammit.) is/was considered the domain of morality - public morality (back to the 4th again) - and thusly regulated by religion, law, and law influenced by specific religious traditions.
Traditionally, the chief justification for blue laws and other laws restricting sexuality was that blurred boundary between religious doctrine, public morality, and semi-secular legislation. Of course now cultural and religious attitudes are changing and that justification doesn’t hold the weight it used to. That’s why the Religious Right and the pro-censorship left have turned to “for the children” scare tactics and pseudoscience to push their anti-sex and/or anti-porn agendas.
The idea that the state cannot legislate morality isn’t fully rooted in this country and without that guideline, the free exercise of sexuality doesn’t exist, legally, while church doctrine passes as legislation.
If we lose that, we’re fucked. In the ass. Hard. No lube and no reacharound.
Sex and religion belong together, but tell that to the moral majority.
The First Amendment is every pornographer’s best friend and we all know it. Without the right to free speech, I can’t make a living say half the fun, nasty things I do over the phone or in my blogs. Without the right to yell “Theater!” in a crowded fire or speak out against a fricking irritating Shrubbery there is no right to porn. Period. Every threat to free speech threatens your free porn privileges.
That’s hitting us where it hurts.
But it’s the right to privacy guarded by the Fourth Amendment (I won’t say guaranteed by; it’s guaranteed in the same way any person’s dignity should be, by birth) that truly protects all avenues of consensual sexuality and reproductive rights (including any combination of sexuality and money you can think of, at least in some counties). The idea that whatever happens between informed, consenting adults is okay, even if you’re offended, is as J.T. Benjamin pointed out grounded in privacy rights. The idea that it isn’t really anybody’s business who you’re fucking is the one that gave unmarried people access to birth control. Your health choices and issues are between you and your doctor, right? They thought so when they re-legalized abortion.
Georgia would rather fuck you than let you fuck yourself. No sex toys for you, my friend. The erotica and porn you’re permitted to see, or make… it all comes back to privacy and whether or not you have the right to do what you want when no one’s watching and no one’s getting hurt in ways they’re not into.