I normally like being able to make new connections between old posts. This is sadly not one of those times.
Earlier this month I featured a surprisingly solid article from Cosmopolitan on nipple clamps. A few days before that I wrote a post entitled Beware Hijackers, warning of the dangers of the #MeToo movement being subverted by the anti-sex crowd. Today brings an unwelcome connection between these two things, with the news that Walmart has pulled Cosmopolitan from its checkout lines. This was apparently driven by a bunch of fuckheads called the ‘National Center on Sexual Exploitation’ who claimed that the sex articles in the magazine contributed to the #MeToo culture and the sexual harassment of women.
I don’t actually care too much about Cosmopolitan magazine per se, but I do care about the anti-sex crowd twisting #MeToo for their own ends. And I hate the puritanical attitude that seems to be rising in the US. I fear that this is just the start of it.
This is Edie Sedgwick, a model and actress, sitting on her manager Chuck Wein. She was one of Warhol’s superstars in the late 60’s. I don’t think she was ever in Cosmo, but she was covered in Vogue, and looked stunning. Sadly she died in 1971 from alcohol and drugs. Note that the link in the image doesn’t go anywhere useful.
Back at the end of the 1980s, early 1990s, I was convinced that the increasing “religious right” was going to bring in a new ager of sexual puritanism. Now it looks like the political left has joined in, and like you, I’m convinced that we’re in for a period of neo-victorian prudishness.
I find the whole thing very depressing. The current chaotic administration makes it particularly bad. Not just that they’re a bunch of assholes (which they are), but that the news cycle churns so quickly and generates so much random noise, that discussion on significant issues just gets lost. The danger isn’t the hopeless idiots making the headlines, it’s the evil fucks using the cover of the headlines to pass dangerous laws like SESTA-FOSTA without anyone noticing. And that in turn empowers all the little action groups opposed to sex, porn and all the other good things in life.
-paltego
It’s not just the U.S.A. it’s just as bad in the U.K. and I’ve just read an article about Microsoft censoring X box and Skype users. As more and more organisations start responding to the hysteria surrounding erotica, pornography and sex work (often described as trafficking) we are gradually going to run out of platforms. It is important that we support people and organisations that are opposing the censorship that is being imposed either by Governments or voluntarily by companies or we are going to lose every platform.
Yeah, the UK is also doing stupid things with its porn and censorship laws. For a while there I thought my old homeland leading the way there on idiotic laws, but the US has definitely jumped into the lead with FOSTA-SESTA. Incredibly destructive bills with almost zero mainstream discussion.
I kind of understand Microsoft with XBox – given that its for gaming, and toxic behavior there is a perennial problem. The skype thing makes no sense to me though. That’s like the phone company saying you can’t swear when making a call.
Definitely need to do all we can to support anti-censorship and free speech organizations.
-paltego