One should never underestimate the lengths to which wingnuts will go to control female sexuality.

[Triana]

The Great Texas Dildo Wars of 2008
By Amanda Marcotte, Pandagon
Posted on March 7, 2008, Printed on March 7, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/78930/

Well, I celebrated too soon the new-found legality of female masturbation in Texas (see the classic video to the right about the ongoing sex toy battles in my fine home state). One should never underestimate the lengths to which wingnuts will go to control female sexuality. The Texas attorney general Greg Abbott, who apparently has nothing better to do than to separate women from their dildos, has asked the 5th Circuit Court to rehear the sex toy case.

I'm trying to imagine the mindset of a man who doesn't realize that when you try to take dildos away from women, basically everyone with a brain and/or a sense of humor is going to assume it's because you're afraid you can't handle the competition.

But I am routinely reminded that we face opposition to sexual liberation, the most prominent face of which is the anti-abortion movement that protests clinics and waves bloody fetus signs from street corners. That movement is made up of people who claim to be in it not because they are misogynists who fear female sexuality, nor because they are control freaks who can't stand the idea of someone else having fun. They are in it, they say, because they want to save the unborn babies.

Take, for example, their opposition to making emergency contraception available over the counter. For most of us, this one was a no-brainer: Better contraception access means fewer unintended pregnancies, which translates into fewer abortions. Over-the-counter emergency contraception, then, means the abortion rate goes down -- and since fewer abortions means more "babies saved" in anti-choice-speak, "pro-life" people should embrace it, right?

MORE at LINK:
http://www.alternet.org/story/78930

[Warpy]

1. They don't really care about us.

They're in a desperate race to keep their randy teenage daughters as pure as the driven snow, a race played out in all cultures across the world and one which is doomed to failure by biology.

Parents want to delay that first childbirth as long as possible so the daughter can finish her education, at the very least. In addition, the idea of some boy doing that to their precious, innocent baby is just as gross as it is for the daughter to think of her parents doing it.

While delaying childbirth might be a laudable thing, they're doing it by trying to control her sexuality. Daughters have a way of rebelling against that and doing exactly what they don't want and presenting them with an early pregnancy, but parents just never learn.

It's up to the power of the state to protect their rights to their own bodies and it's up to the power of the state to make sure they have enough knowledge and access to prevent early and disastrous pregnancies.

Most parents are simply unable to do that for their daughters. The thought of having their pure little dolly defiled by some boy is just too horrible to too many of them. That's when the larger society must step in with complete and appropriate sex education and the protection of the right to control fertility.

[Triana]

10. Trying to control nature...

..wont work - you're right, IMO. They have to work within nature's system. Teenagers will want to have sex. Telling them not to makes them want it more. Providing them with complete and thorough education and birth control and control over and complete rights to their bodies is the only way to prevent unwanted pregnancy.

Wingnuts = Control Freaks.

[Warpy]

11. My mother was a rare old bird

who got into trouble in neighborhood after neighborhood for telling girls in their teens what a period was and what to expect.

I knew where babies came from when I was four. I didn't know how they got there until I was eight, although I didn't believe it for another 2 years.

My mother gave me a birth control lecture with my first period. I think that lecture on the mechanics and what I had to do to prevent childbirth discouraged me from sex for a long time. I was a late bloomer.

The experience in the Netherlands where complete reproductive health education is the norm would seem to confirm that.

[Triana]

12. I've heard about the Netherlands. They seem to have their stuff straight on many issues...

...this being only one of them. Did you live there?

[Warpy]

13. No, but I spent 10 years on IRC

and got to know quite a few people there.

Yes, they've realized that "victimless crime" is an oxymoron. They seem to have come to terms with vice reasonably well. They're starting to take a turn to the political hard right, though, due to pressure from liberal immigration policies. We'll have to see what they turn into.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. You know, if they want to keep down the number of abortions

and pre-marital sex, they shouldn't be messing with sex toys. I have yet to hear of anyone getting pregnant or getting an STD from self-stimulation.

[Sal Minella]

3. That's what I was thinking -- Anyone who's anti-abortion should certainly be pro-dildo.

[Warpy]

5. Right, and you don't have to cook B.O.B. breakfast, either

or get stuck doing his laundry, "I have a few things, can I throw them in with yours?"

Battery Operated Boyfriend should be presented to every girl at menarche. So should an open ended prescription for the pill or the shot and a box of condoms.

Alas, all she'll get is a lecture on abstinence followed by unsafe sex.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. when you were a kid, was masturbation looked on in horror?

It was called "personal abuse", for heaven's sake! And I was told I would rupture my female parts if I did it! The lies and shame associated by a very natural activity that offers a safe outlet to unprotected sex still makes my mind boggle.

[Triana]

6. Exactly...

...and that fact makes it all the more obvious that what this really all about is control - not morality or stopping abortion or unwanted pregnancies.

[plantwomyn]

4. Next thing you know

they'll be banning us from growing cucumbers!



Sorry, just came in from the gardening group and couldn't help myself.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. rofl

:rofl:

And don't forget zucchinis!

[knitter4democracy]

9. Or washing machines.

Oh wait, they probably don't know about that one and want women to keep doing the laundry. ;)

[supernova]

14. Or the shower massage

:D

[dusmcj]

15. who's up for sending gift baskets to the legislators' wives

from Adam & Eve, given their investment in the cause ? Now that it's legal and all.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. It was clear to me from listening to my grandmother and her friends

that their opposition to abortion as not so much tender feelings about fetuses as about the idea that pregnancy was a "just punishment" for a woman who was a "slut."

[Name removed]

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