Sex, Violence and Censorship

Some comments on an article about a man who really sets himself up to be made fun of.

I recently found a news story titled “Dad Wants $20K, Says Lesbian Book Disturbed Teens” here. I have a strong suspicion that the man in question is really just after some quick cash, but even so the news story serves as a perfect example of the strange views on sex and violence in society.

I have personally never understood why sex is supposed to be worse for the children than violence. But it seems like many think that’s the case. Parent groups and crusaders for morality complain whenever a “bad” word is uttered or an uncovered inch of skin is shown. Sure, they complain about violence too, but not at all to the same degree. Sex is always the real danger, according to people like that.

Either way, we all know that it is common for people to overreact at the very mention of sex, for whatever reason. But few are as funny to mock as the gentleman in the news article.

According to the article Earl Adams in Bentonville, Ark. has two sons, aged 14 and 16 who were at the public library “browsing for material on military academies.” During this they apparently found a book titled “The Whole Lesbian Sex Book” instead, and were according to Adams “greatly disturbed.”

Because of this, Adams wants the library director fired and tried to sue the city for $10,000 for each of his sons; the maximum allowed under the Arkansas obscenity law. Why does Adams think that they need such large amounts? What damage could the book have caused? Well, according to Adams, the book caused “many sleepless nights in our house.”

Well, I bet it did! Books of that nature often tend to cause “sleepless nights” for healthy young men, but they usually don’t complain about it.

Honestly, it seems very hard to find a book like that by accident while browsing information about the military. And even if the book had been misplaced there they could have just ignored it after reading the title, if they didn’t want to read it. I’m worried for them if they didn’t read it and were that “greatly disturbed” just by being reminded that lesbians exist. If so they seem to be so sexually repressed that they should get a psychologist. They should possibly get a better home too.

I’m just speculating here, but it seems more likely that they did read the book. And in that case they did so of their own free will. And it also seems likely that their tremendously strict father caught them reading the book and that’s the only reason they told him that they were greatly disturbed by it. They couldn’t very well tell such a man that they liked it.

Whatever the boys did, and whatever their real intentions were, the father overreacted extremely though. He is totally ok with his young sons reading about military academies, after all, that’s good and healthy, right? Joining the military has never held any danger, none at all. A book on lesbian sex, though, that is very dangerous. I’m not sure exactly how, but obviously it is. It’s $10,000 dollars worth of dangerous just seeing such a book. Obviously.

Well, thankfully “the city’s attorney dismissed Adam’s claim as baseless” and he didn’t get his $20,000, so there seems to be some sanity left in the world. He did manage to get the book off the shelves of the library though.

According to the article, Adams said in an e-mail that “God was speaking to my heart that day and helped me find the words that proved successful in removing this book from the shelf.” And “Any effort to reinstate the book will be met with legal action and protests from the Christian community.”

Don’t you just love these people who think that they know exactly what God wants? And these guys who think that they can claim to speak for the entire Christian community… It’s just such wonderful humility and modesty!

Sometimes when I write it can seem like I have a problem with religious people in general. I really, really don’t. It’s just people like this guy, who feels that he alone has the right to dictate what is going to be on the shelves of a public library and decide what other people are allowed to read.

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”Why the …”-Update, about the silencing of dissenting views

Just a quick update on last night’s post about gays and McDonald’s

I have had very little time to write all summer, so when I wrote this post it took me a few days of little moments here and there. So it was several days ago that I first started looking into the matter. At that time I read some of the vile, hateful comments at boycottmcdonalds.com and decided to leave my own comment there.

My comment was pretty carefully worded; I tried not to be offensive in any way, even though their website really made me want to be offensive. The most hurtful thing that I wrote was some small comment about how their comments prove that a gay rights moment is needed, but that’s as bad as I got. Other than that I just wrote a short little piece about my views that homosexuality will never affect their families, and asked a rhetorical question about why they even care.

Well, my comment didn’t appear at once, so I figured that they moderate the comments, and that it would appear after being approved. Well, I was wrong. Now, several days later, many, many comments from others have been approved and put up, while mine is still missing. My comment, just a small little thing to give them my perspective on the matter, was apparently not allowed on that site, while every gay-bashing word about “disgusting abominations” is allowed.

The American Family Association seems to imply that this is a struggle in the name of liberty and democracy. But somehow they seem to think that it is suitable to censor comments that do not agree with their views.

And it is not just that. You have to agree with their views in the right way too. When I realized that my comment wouldn’t be published I tried, just for fun, to leave another comment. It was a positive comment about the boycott, but since so many of the published comments were talking about God and Jesus, I said that I was supporting it “because homosexuality is a sin in the eyes of Allah”. That one didn’t get published either. Go figure.

Talking about the comments… There are many comments, and texts by the AFA, that claim that it is not at all about hatred against homosexuals. They claim that all they are doing is protesting against the fact that McDonald’s are “taking sides” in such an issue; that they are just expressing the opinion that big corporations should “remain neutral”.

Well, with comments like “Stop supporting a vile and disgraceful lifestyle.” I have a hard time believing that. It really seems like it does have everything to do with hatred of gays. Especially since I am utterly, utterly convinced that these groups would not care one tiny bit if McDonald’s gave such a relatively small amount of money ($20 000, a tiny amount for such a big corporation) to any other organization. I am certain that McDonald’s make donations like that fairly frequently, but only when it is in support of a “disgusting and sinful lifestyle” is it even mentioned.

Do not even try to claim that it is not about homophobia.

Also, I have gotten an e-mail asking me why I care. Why I can’t “respect” the opinion of these people. Well, I don’t know if I should have more respect. You can think what you like, and you can call me vile and evil for speaking out about these issues if you’d like. I’m very much a “sticks and stones…”-kind of guy; it doesn’t really matter to me if a few people think that way about me.

However, I have long had friends that are more easily affected, and who are not straight. Some of these friends have been so hurt by people calling them things like “disgusting” and “sinful”, that they have hurt themselves physically over it. And you can mess with me, but no one messes with my friends. As long as the people I love, and other innocent people, are being harassed and hurt like this, I will continue being a pain about it. No matter who thinks I’m evil or stupid because of it.

Sadly, this is how some people act, especially some “Christians”. I’ve seen several times how they break homosexuals down by berating them with hateful comments about their “sinful lifestyle”. And then, when the homosexual in question seems depressed or angry by the situation they say “See! I’m right; homosexuality is wrong! It makes people depressed and angry!”… Without any regards for the fact that they wouldn’t have any need to be angry, and no reason to be depressed, if they wouldn’t have been harassed in the first place.

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