Make War Not Love: Abstinence, Aggression and the Bush White House

[elfwitch]

by Heather Wokusch

The Bush Administration's sexual prudishness is no secret - and neither is its love of war. Could the two be connected?

The freewheeling "Oral Office" Clinton years came to an abrupt halt when Bush took over. Suddenly, abstinence became the White House mantra, and men whose religiosity seemed to preclude doing the nasty occupied the highest offices in the land.

There's Attorney General John Ashcroft, who opposes drinking, smoking - even dancing - on moral grounds, and who ordered the "Spirit of Justice" statue covered up because he couldn't handle the sight of her naked marble breasts. There's David Hager , an OB/GYN who refuses to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women (and believes the Bible is an antidote for premenstrual syndrome), as one of three religious conservatives Bush appointed to the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs.

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I think she has a really good point here.

[Ilsa]

1. I'm surprised the ACOG hasn't revoked Hager's fellowship

in ACOG if he refuses to prescribe contraceptives to single women. What if she needs them for other health reasons? Does he provide prenatal care for single women? What am I to do with the Bible if I have PMS? Tear it in two if I get cranky?

We need to send this monster to to to, well hell, I can't think of a place backasswards enough to deserve such a jerk.

As for the article:

(Snip) Numerous studies have documented that "no sex" societies are often plagued by acts of rage. A cross-cultural investigation by American psychologist J.M. Prescott, for example, found that societies which punished premarital sex tended to have higher rates of crime and violence. Prescott also linked sexual repression to aggression, insensitivity, criminal behavior, and a greater likelihood of killing and torturing enemies.

Of course, just as sexual repression can lead to aggression, a culture of war can equate intimacy with violence. So these days, it comes as no surprise that lethal weapons are often described in loving, phallic terms. (Snip)

I think the author has enough info to recommend they go to therapy for their hangups. Maybe if Chimpy McFlightsuit got a bj, we could withdraw from Iraq.

[elfwitch]

2. Rx for PMS

His prescription for PMS is prayer. Jesus will take those crapms and bloating away. I don't know how someone like that can keep their license either. But he is indicative of the Puritanical crap these guys buy in to. It comes from the same place as their belief that poor people are poor becuse they are sinners and god is punishing them.

[htuttle]

3. Read 'The Mass Psychology of Fascism.' by Wilhelm Reich

The Surveillance Camera Players used to have a great short version of it, but their site isn't available right now.

Here's the link if it ever becomes available again:
http://www.notbored.org/reich.html

In a nutshell, suppression of sex is a means of control that has been used throughout the ages. Reich examined the parallels between the Nazi image of sex and women, and the mass psychology of the Nazi movement.

Fascinating stuff, but the book might seem a bit 'dry' if you're not into it.

[Karenina]

5. Also by Wilhelm Reich

"The Function of Orgasm" and "Little Man." VERY INTERESTING. I've heard many comment that if his books had been available, Hitler could not have happened. IIRC he had to get out of Dodge!

[OneBlueSky]

4. "The cornerstones of conservative ethos . . .

are sexual hysteria, meanness, and hypocrisy. It all fits together -- if they weren't so fucked up about sex, they wouldn't want to be so mean, and they wouldn't have to be so hypocritical."
Rod Downey