Book Review: America's War On Sex by Marty Klein
Published December 07, 2007
The most thought provoking idea in Klein’s book, however, can be found in chapter three “The Most Powerful ‘Minority’ in the United States.” He writes, “I’m confused. Exactly who is this ‘they’ that the Religious Right keep saying has hijacked the country?… And who are the consumers of the cultural products the Religious Right constantly criticizes? Who do they think is watching Desperate Housewives, going to see Maid in Manhattan, buying Cosmopolitan, and downloading Janet Jackson’s half-second nipple?…They have gotten the government and media to support them as defenders of America’s wholesomeness against some mythical, incredibly powerful ’them’… But the Right is like the kid who kills his parents and asks for mercy because he’s an orphan. Somehow, they neglect to mention that it’s the consumer choices and other preferences of their own constituents that are the so-called problem.”
In other words, it is the average, working- and middle-class, Republican voters that are watching porn in private and crying out (and voting) against it in public. The most visible leaders of the Right, including Jimmy Swaggart, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Guiliani and Strom Thurmond had extramarital affairs, visited prostitutes and participated in sexual harassment. Are they included in the “them” that is hijacking the country from decent folk like you and me?
The central trouble with this war on sex is that early on in the history of Western civilization, sex has been demonized by religious leaders until today it is the norm to be ashamed of any sexual impulse whatsoever.
Who in their right mind is going to stand up for the rights of Americans to get a lap dance? Which of us will be strong enough to battle our own guilt and throw off the oppressive shackles of shame to stand up to these hypocrites? I hope that I can when the time comes, and I’m grateful that Marty Klein and the American Civil Liberties Union does.
- Book Review: America's War On Sex by Marty Klein
- Published: December 07, 2007
- Type: Review
- Section: Books
- Filed Under: Books: Nonfiction, Books: Politics and Affairs
- Writer: David R. Farthing
- David R. Farthing's BC Writer page
- David R. Farthing's personal site
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Thank you Janet for correcting my mistake. I will go to the site you suggested so I can be better informed.
From my poem Venus and Adonis:
Call it not Love for Love to heaven is fled
since sweating lust on earth usurp'd His name.
Under whose simple semblance man hath fed
upon fresh beauty blotting it with blame,
Which the hot tyrant stains and soon bereaves
as caterpillars do the tender leaves.
Love comforteth like sunshine after rain
But lusts effect is tempest afte sun.
Love's gentle spring doth alwlays fresh remain
Lust's winter comes ere summer half be done.
Love surfeit not, lust like a glutton dies,
Love is all truth, lust full of forged lies.
RU-486 is NOT the morning after pill. The morning after pill goes by a few brand names e.g. 'Plan B' and 'Levonelle'. The active ingredient is 'levornogestrel' which is a progesterone. It is not an abortifacient and will cause no harm to an established pregnancy. It works in exactly the same way as regular hormonal birth control, just in a single dose - it delays ovulation so that there will be no egg to be fertilised.
Much of the Plan B's bad press comes from this confusion. It is counterintuitive that one should be able to use a method of contraception after the deed is already done, but in fact it takes several days for a pregnancy to establish itself. Most doctors and pharmacists refer to is as 'emergency contraception' rather than 'the morning after pill' in order to emphasise this.
I would appreciate it if the facts could be corrected in this article - they do more harm than you'd think.
Some good sites (easily the best site on the net about EC) and (for general sexual health and politics) to learn more.
Dear Sweetrush: I will be happy to correct this article. Expect this correction to appear soon. Thank you for your comment.
Add your comment, speak your mind
(Or ping: http://blogcritics.org/mt/tb/71776)
Emergency contraception (sometimes called the Morning After Pill) is not the same thing as RU-486. The former is a post-coital form of contraception, the latter is used for medical abortions. Follow this link on the Web site of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals to learn more about the differences between the two drugs.
This is the paragraph from your blog that confuses the two:
As a result of this political activity on the part of what Klein calls "erotophobes" (people who hate anything sexy), most states now allow pharmacists to refuse to fill any legal prescription, though they usually refuse to fill RU-486 (the morning-after pill). New laws are being enacted to protect pharmacists who then refuse to refer patients to other pharmacies that will help them.