A new Alabama law requires that felons convicted of having sex with children and now getting out on parole take drugs that will chemically castrate them. If they refuse they can be kept in prison—even if they have absolutely no sexual interest in children.
This law satisfies the bloodlust of Alabamians, but will NOT make their children safer.
Florida has criminalized sex dolls that look like children. Arizona has declared porn a public health crisis.
Both were done without input from scientists, sex experts, or consumers.
“Consent” is only one aspect of sexuality; focussing on it too much distracts us from other important policy issues regarding sex. It also ignores the central role of ambivalence and ambiguity in sexual decision-making.
Sex robots that can be programmed to simulate kids–dangerous to real kids? Congress expresses disgust with our sexual imagination by talking about danger.
The Supreme Court rules that a baker does not have to custom-make a cake for a gay wedding. There’s something fundamentally good about this decision–it protects free artistic expression.
The real Constitutional problem is that religious beliefs are considered so precious that they get special rights.
Men are people, and women are people. Treating them like “men” or “women” prevents us from thinking clearly about what they say and do.
Thinking of “men” and “women” as separate tribes will NOT help us understand each other.