My twitter feed was on fire today as people talked about anti-porn advocate Meghan Murphy. She wrote about feminism and legislation [link here]. It was really just one long comment to someone else’s article about feminist advancements. Anyway, she had these things to say:
[T]alk of bans or of criminalization of things like pornography often lead to people to say things like: “FREE SPEECH!” “RIGHTS!” “CENSORSHIP!” But these people are stupid.
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Let’s reflect on some of the behaviours we’ve criminalized in our society: murder, rape, domestic abuse, animal cruelty, advocating genocide, and creating, buying, or selling child pornography. There are other behaviours we’ve criminalized that are silly, like doing certain kinds of drugs, but that’s a whole other political can of worms. [??? Like what, MM? lol]
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True freedom and true freedom of speech would exist in a society without systemic oppression. In a world wherein male violence against women is an epidemic, it is not reasonable to say that we live in a free society. It is also not reasonable to defend behaviours that perpetuate oppression and violence on account of “freedom” and “freedom of speech”. Those who argue this are stupid, narrow-minded jerks who’ve spent too long eating American freedom fries and only care about “rights” in as much as those “rights” provide them with access to the sex/money/power they believe they were born entitled to.
Setting aside the use of words like “stupid” and “jerk”–nothing screams “progressive” quite like name-calling–and the random statement about some cherished drug she can’t use because it’s illegal, this is obviously an hysterical rant from a fanatical type of person. I’m not going to critique it beyond that. What caused me to write at all, is that before I even read the article I saw her name, knew what was going on and had this thought that I had to tweet:
In my experience, the most advertised form of anything is not only misleading, it’s usually unhealthy on its own: food, medicine, feminism..
You can add other things to that; body image, politics, fashion, religion, music, etc.
The most advertised things usually don’t marry well with our conscience. Do you feel better about yourself eating fast food? If you are like me, no. You eat it because it’s fast and tastes good, but it doesn’t necessarily make you feel like you’re a healthier person. It’s full of extra stuff that your body doesn’t need but helps to preserve the food–which, by the time it gets to you, is fairly old. The most advertised forms of medicine come with a slew of disclaimers that are pretty scary. Likewise, looking at popular magazines doesn’t make me feel attractive, and it always seems the most hateful people claim to know what’s best for my mind and my spirit. I don’t expect mainstream feminism to be any different.
What’s healthy is usually something not so highly publicized. Something so low key advertisers aren’t interested. Popular feminism is subject to the same problems everything else is subject to, and it takes a discerning eye and research to uncover the truth. Nothing against feminism, of course, it’s just that the loudest people are usually the most agenda-driven. The loudest people are usually the first to disregard the truth and talk over others rather than listen and learn and actually be of benefit to our society.
What’s most advertised is so because it’s fueled by money. To remain relevant, the idea has to convert people to keep the machine going. I don’t need feminists selling me on their savior qualities so they can become richer. It’s just a form of religion if the purpose is to stand at the pulpit and issue a wall of unchallenged rhetoric. I choose to think for myself, thanks anyway. I don’t think I’m interested in being mind-fucked by you today.
As for Meghan Murphy, I won’t say she is stupid, but she doesn’t seem too terribly bright…
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