“I have sex”

Sometimes, all it takes is that simple admission: “I have sex.”

Our government is afraid of our sex lives. Given their way, the Right and the majority of our current Congress would deny our right to fuck.

According to our current government, sex outside marriage and procreation is a sin. Birth control is a sin. Abortion is murder. Any steps taken towards making having sex healthier and safer is a sin. And as America’s number one provider of reproductive health services, Planned Parenthood will bear the brunt of these hurtful ideological attacks. Tens of thousands of women (and men) who have relied on their reproductive health services will suffer.

If there is one thing that we’ve learned from the previous election cycle, it is that our votes matter. Our rights as individuals and citizens are being taken away. Congress has already come for our reproductive freedoms. Now they will come for our right to vote and hold municipal elections.

It’s our time to push back. It’s our time to tell others that we are sexual beings. We do have sex. We can’t punish ourselves — and we can’t punish others — by allowing our government to enact an anti-human agenda.

Charlie Sheen’s Mysogyny

 

The Disposable Woman – NYTimes.com via kwout

…is tolerated as part of a larger cultural misogyny. Anne Holmes, creator of Jezebel, has an excellent opinion piece in the New York Times called The Disposable Woman.

Holmes demonstrates how Charlie Sheen‘s record of lashing out and being abusive toward the women in his life has been tolerated, even affectionately joked about, by the media at large. Part of the problem, she argues, is the sort of women he’s been involved with.

But there’s something else at work here: the seeming imperfection of Mr. Sheen’s numerous accusers. The women are of a type, which is to say, highly unsympathetic. Some are sex workers — pornographic film stars and escorts — whose compliance with churlish conduct is assumed to be part of the deal. (For the record: It is not.)

Holmes goes on to point out how the exploitation and debasement of women has become a normal part of reality TV culture.

Honestly, there are so many great quotes and arguments in this piece, I can’t possibly pull them all.

Read it for yourself at the NYT.