GOP Platform Promises to Prosecute Porn, But the Most Porn is Viewed in Red States (opposingviews.com)

It’s hardly surprising, but I’m still not comfortable with the fact that traffic to the .org automatically triples whenever I have a blog relating to sex or kink on the front page. Even though I’ve said I’ll be blogging more about those topics now to help promote The Prostitutes of Lake Wobegon, I still hesitate to do so because I still feel weird bringing up these things, at least in a non-fictional context. When stories like this one come up, though, it’s hard for me not to talk about it just because it touches on so many different threads of my life, both political and personal.

My first memories of “dirty pictures” are the Playboy magazines Dad used to keep in a box in the garage. I looked at them, but I wondered why my friends had such strong reactions to the naked women inside. I didn’t get why it was such a big deal. Once I realized the cultural taboos against “porn,” I began to support it simply to rub people the wrong way, but as I grew older I realized the free speech issues involved, and also the larger issues of sexual freedoms. The idea that some people thought they had the right to say what I could and couldn’t do in my bedroom with consenting adults really unnerved me, and continues to do so to this day. In the grand scheme of things it’s hardly the most important front of the crusade the religious right is fighting against the rest of us, but it’s one that matters a lot to me.

I had to deal with a number of second-wave feminist teachers in high school, and they presented me with such a warped view of what feminism was that I really didn’t embrace feminism until I got to Antioch and saw what feminism could be. Dealing with second-wave feminists, though, brought to my attention the debate over whether all erotica is, by its nature, demeaning to women. There’s no question that a good part of the erotica out there is demeaning to women, but I never thought that erotic photography or writing or anything like that was inherently demeaning to anyone. This is an argument I wound up studying throughout my academic career, although I have to admit that these days I tend to surround myself with like-minded people on this topic and so I haven’t had the opportunity to debate it as much as I should.

Introducing kink into the argument complicates things immensely. Although there are companies out there producing kink erotica that make a conscious effort to portray kink as something that can be empowering to women — even for those who are portrayed as bottoms and/or submissives — it’s a difficult argument to get into because you have to overcome the initial, understandable reaction many people have when they see or read about a woman on a collar and leash, or tied up, or anything like that, and then try to explain how empowering it can be to allow yourself to give up whatever part of yourself you wish to give up to someone else. (Harmony Concepts’ philosophy statement, which I think may be older than I am, remains one of the better arguments about how kink can be positive and empowering for those who bottom and/or submit.) Secretary seemed to help a number of people understand that, but one of the common complaints I hear from my kinky friends about 50 Shades of Grey is that the series is a significant step backward in that regard.

Even outside of what could be considered “clear” erotica, the definitions of erotica, and particularly more weighty words like obscenity and pornography, are tremendously subjective, and this could become a very big concern for me professionally if Republicans emerge triumphant in November. At its heart, The Prostitutes of Lake Wobegon is very much a bildungsroman, and I don’t see it as an erotic novel because even though prostitution does play a significant part of the story,the sex scenes arehardly the focal point of the story. Still, there are depictions of sexual activities in the book, and so I could definitely see those on the far right identifying it as “pornographic” or “obscene,” and while the controversies that erupt over those words usually end up immensely helping the artist (like the obscenity arrests and trials of 2 Live Crew and Pussy Riot I blogged about recently), it definitely creates a lot of headaches for the artist, and given how angry and loud the far-right seems to be about everything these days, that’s not something I can say I’d look forward to dealing with.

Perhaps it’s not surprising that Republicans would put strong anti-pornography language in its platform this year, given the success Rick Santorum had in this year’s primaries and how the party is eschewing the conventional Washington wisdom of moving to the centre after the primaries are over. I don’t know to what extent cultural conservatives are wary of Mitt Romney’s Mormonism, but I got the sense that Romney’s religion wouldn’t be a factor to other conservative Christians given how much President Obama’s been demonized by the far right these past four years. Still, it probably can’t hurt to throw some red meat to far-right religious groups like this, and it’ll probably secure more votes for Romney than it’ll cost him.

Republicans and conservatives have made these kinds of pledges before, and I know that the erotica industry is hardly suffering from obscenity legislation or lack of customers right now. Since 2001, though, Republicans have not only turned far to the right, but have been very assertive in doing so, and I think that’s evident in the rhetoric and forcefulness of not just the traditional flamethrowers in right-wing media, but now even the campaigns and politicians themselves. One of the problems of the Obama presidency was that even when Democrats enjoyed huge majorities in Congress in 2009 and 2010, Obama still governed as though Congress was split 50/50 between Democrats and Republicans. When Bush 43 was in office, he and Congressional Republicans governed like the House and the Senate were 100% Republican. Heck, they talked and acted that way even in 2009 and 2010, and they’re still acting that way now with their “no compromise” mentality. If Mitt Romney wins in November — and it’s impossible to see him do that without Republicans carrying the House and winning back the Senate as well — I have no doubt that they will act swiftly to enact major legislation quickly, perhaps even challenging the scope of the reforms FDR pushed through in his first hundred days in office. With the Citizens United ruling freeing up Republicans’ big business backers to spend virtually unlimited amounts of money in future elections, I don’t know if those kinds of changes could ever be undone; they’d almost certainly remain in place throughout my lifetime.

Hearing conservatives talk about going after “obscenity” and “pornography” has always rubbed me the wrong way, but given the current political climate, and the hopes I have riding on getting The Prostitutes of Lake Wobegon published, I can’t help but worry deeply about what these promises Republicans are making to the religious right in this election season could mean for me, both personally and professionally. Things like this make me realize just how much I have riding on this election.