I’ve stumbled upon several samples of human stupidity recently, and I would like to share them with you here.

Exhibit 1: Stage play “The Vagina Monologues” has been renamed at a theatre in Florida to “The Hoohaa Monologues” after a complaint about the title. Complaint came from a woman who was “offended” when her niece asked her what a vagina was.

Let’s stop for a moment here.

Not only the “vagina” is a body part owned by some three billion people, but this complaint came from a woman whose niece asked her about it!

Can anyone, anyone, please, explain to me what’s wrong with this woman? Is it wrong for a girl to know her body parts? I could barely understand if it was a penis in question.

And to top it all, play author Eve Ensler wrote the play after interviewing 200 women about their views on sex, relationships, and violence against females!

Exhibit 2: The Icelandic Counseling and Information Center for Survivors of Sexual Violence (Stígamót) has openly protested against an adult film industry conference scheduled to be held in Reykjavík, Iceland next month. Organizer of “SnowGathering” adult business conference is a web site freeones.com.

Here’s how and why Stígamót protested. In the letter it says: “Dear persons of authority. In Iceland we have shown that if we do not want representatives of organized crime in our country, we can stop them. […] At Stígamót we do not believe this conference should be tolerated. We challenge you […] to prevent it.”

So, hiding behind “survivors of sexual violence” name is a bunch of people banning legitimate business conference, assuming it is run by “representatives of organized crime”. They didn’t bother to offer any kind of proof about their statement because they didn’t need to. You can just hide behind “survivors of sexual violence” name and slap anyone on the head with hot poker.

Here are some “arguments”: “Pornography is prostitution in pictures and prostitution is the reason human trafficking thrives. […]. Pornography is prohibited in Iceland.”

See how easy it is? A -> B -> C -> D -> … and you are mass child murderer before you can say “wha..?”

Still, who needs a bunch of 200 rich people spending their dollars in your small town?

Exhibit 3: City staff want Sinners Gentlemen’s Club to stop displaying nude mannequins in its Washington Avenue window display, but club ownership is appealing to keep the mannequins up. According to city code, sexually oriented businesses cannot display “merchandise or pictures of the products or entertainment on the premises” in the building windows.

To make things clear, Sinners Gentlemen’s Club has two “nude” headless mannequins in their window display.

First of all, finding nude mannequins offensive speaks more about city staff sexual preferences then about Sinners Gentlemen’s Club.

Second, can someone explain to me how headless mannequins are “picture of the product on the premises”? I think that mannequin fetish and headless girls fetish are too much, even for city officials. They heed their heads examined.

Anti-Anti Pornography Series - Parts 1, 2, 3, 4

Imagine yourself riding a broken wings airplane, rushing through the clouds at 300 mph, heading straight to the ground. It would be great if you are just dreaming. Let’s pretend that you are really just dreaming.

Then you force yourself out of this bad dream.

This is how I felt when I’ve stumbled across this article about how bestseller book “Da Vinci Code” is considered to be pornography. Only thing that is different is that I couldn’t wake up after reading. I was already awake and this was reality. We are living in a world full of possibilities and yet there are some people who make you sick.

Organization behind this nonsense is “Philippine Alliance Against Pornography“. Here is the news excerpt: “Declaring that allowing “the most pornographic and blasphemous film in history” to be shown would “break” the Christian faith around the world, the Philippine Alliance Against Pornography Inc. (PAAP) said the President should order the National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine National Police and the Bureau of Customs to confiscate and destroy master copies of the film, which stars Tom Hanks.

In a statement, PAAP spokesman Aldo Filomeno said copies of Brown’s books available in bookstores and related establishments should also be destroyed. Finally, the group wants Brown to be declared persona non grata in the country.”

In addition, they compared Dan Brown to Adolf Hitler.

Bottom line is that if they do not agree with something then it should be banned.

Let’s dissect this a bit:

1. Pornographic = Blasphemous: This is very dangerous stuff. Since they need at least some arguments to ban this book, they labeled it “pornographic”. Since “Da Vinci Code” contains as much pornographic themes as a box of cereals, it’s easy for them to ban just anything they like.

2. Catholic Church support: Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), expressed through a pastoral letter that even though The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction, it “shapes the imagination, stirs emotions and forms mental associations” and added that “Brown has created the impression that his fiction is historical fact.“.

Now we meet again, don’t we? It seems that Christian churches stand behind all anti-pornography groups, no matter how silly their arguments are. I have all reasons to believe that they are not just supportive bystanders.

3. Muslim support: The Moro Islamic Liberation Front Deputy Chairman Khaled Musa appealed to the MTRCB to ban the film, arguing that the film is blasphemous not only to Catholics but also to Muslims because Jesus Christ is considered one of the Prophets of Islam.

New development, but not at all surprising. When it’s time to manipulate people, Muslims and Catholics are united.

4. Government support: The City Councilors of Manila passed a resolution to ban the film, labeling it as “offensive and contrary to established religious beliefs which cannot take precedence over the right of the persons involved in the film to freedom of expression.”

In other words, you are completely free to express yourself when we like what you have to say. Otherwise shut the hell up or we’ll beat you with a stick.

Government knows they are supporting bullshit fundamentalists but they love their money and influence. If they didn’t ban the book they would loose support from powerful religious groups and consequently loose their positions.

5. Corporations support: The “SM Supermalls”, the largest chain of shopping malls in the Philippines, prohibited the showing of “The Da Vinci Code” in all of their movie theaters throughout the country. This decision is in line with their policy for not showing films that were rated by MTRCB as R-18.

“SM Supermalls” also know that if they didn’t follow the stack they would loose profit if someone in power called for boycott.

Now we have all elements in place. Every single top layer in Philippines power pyramid is united in banning one book. Government, churches, morality enforcers, corporations… We see how things work when you implement fundamentalist doctrine in everyday life.

I hope I’ll wake up someday from this nightmare.

Links: Part I, Part II, Part III

(This is a series of posts giving arguments against anti-porn groups)

I will argue with one anti-porn activist who unfortunately isn’t among us anymore. I will not name her. My argument is against her concept, without intention to insult her family.

She has many followers even today, so this argument is directed at them instead. Let’s see some quotes:

1. “Concerned parents all over the country are sounding the alarm that they can no longer protect their children, in this high-tech era, from the pornography industry.”

There it is! Right to the point, abolition for lazy parents and creating a need for anti-porn groups. While it’s clear we need to protect our children from porn, it’s also clear that parents need to do that. No government agency or civic group will do that instead. They’ll just take your money and do nothing for children. Except maybe theirs.

2. “Pornographic material that is “obscene” (sometimes called “hardcore”) is illegal on the federal level and in over forty states. The U.S. Supreme Court has said that to be “obscene,” a video, magazine, performance or other “work” must meet the following three criteria: 1) the average person, applying contemporary community standards, must find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; 2) the work must depict or describe sexual conduct in a patently offensive way; and 3) the work, taken as a whole, must lack serious literary, artistic, political and scientific value.”

This is the single most Stalinist law I’ve seen in my life. This law is dangerous. Main question is - who determines what is “patently offensive”? Don’t worry, anti-porn group explains it all:

3. “That is why it is essential for you, and for any church, synagogue or civic group to which you belong, to register complaints with your district attorney (called county prosecutors or state’s attorneys in some states) and ask him or her to investigate any hardcore pornographic outlets for possible violation of the state obscenity law.”

What frightens me the most is that this law only counts if someone complains. If you write a favourable letter about porn to your district attorney he will not care less. If you and hundreds of others write that the Bible describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, he will hot care less.

The same problem occurs whenever someone tries to make a law out of morality code.

4. “The enforcement of the obscenity laws, however, is not censorship since the government is not exercising any prior restraint. Obscenity laws are enforced after publication, not before.”

From the same people who try to “make things right” you get this legal disclaimer. It doesn’t matter when you force people to shut up because you don’t like what they’re saying.

5. “Concerned citizens who are insisting that the constitutional obscenity laws be enforced… are not engaging in censorship. They are exercising their precious First Amendment rights to free speech, their rights to ward off assaults on their families,…”

This is borderline ridiculous and typical rhetorical trap. To make their weak point stronger they make it look like “right to ward off assaults on their families” is included in First Amendment. Coincidentally, the First Amendment is something all porn peddlers depend on. By taking porn industry life-line for themselves, this group tries to give a final blow. They fail miserably.

And then, a tirade of false arguments follow:

6. “Our phones ring daily with stories of pornography’s victims… It is not uncommon to receive a distressed phone call… We get letters from prisoners, pouring out their hearts about how pornography triggered their sexual crimes and actually served as a blueprint for brutality…”

This is really good stuff. After creating a theoretical base, they are proving their point in practice. The only problem is that all this is based on their word. They received phone calls… big deal. Porn peddlers get more feedback from their customers asking for more then they ever will. Does that make porn more acceptable? Of course it is not!

And finally, some honest stuff:

7. “We also get many calls from people coast to coast who seek advice on how to cope with the emerging, so-called “adult” video stores and bookstores, destroying the quality of life in their communities, spitting in the face of family values and attempting to make a mockery of the Judeo-Christian code which has served as a cornerstone of Western civilization.”

Ok, we finally get to the point here. This group is Christian fundamentalist mob. They make me sick. All this universal values crap and then – they dismiss five billion people in one sentence. Imagine what they would do to those Danish cartoon makers?

Way to go. Who needs friends with this kind of opponents?

Read more of “Anti-Anti-Pornography” series:

Part I

Part II