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A week ago, in the context of a discussion on some NYT article, @2rafa commented that “there is an unstated (on the progressive side) premise among all people that casual sex is a bad deal for women and devalues or dishonors them in some way”. It generated a few replies but basically no further discussion, even though I’m sure it’s worthy of further discussion, and here’s why: as far as I’m aware, it’s certainly not the case that progressives had this attitude from the beginning of the Sexual Revolution, which is what the context is here. Obviously they used to have a different view in general, but sometime along the way, they changed their minds, because things turned sour, essentially.
Before continuing I think it’s important to qualify, as 2rafa also did, that other ideological groups also share this basic view, but the two main differences are that right-wingers tend to state this view openly, whereas progs are usually reluctant to do so, and that they do so on religious and moralistic grounds, whereas progs concentrate on women’s individual long-term interests, not on any other considerations.
So anyway, I said to myself: surely these people, being progressives, believe that the Sexual Revolution, while a laudable event, went haywire at some point, and didn’t bear the fruits it was supposed to. And I can tell that this is a relatively widespread view, because I can see it expressed in various online venues all the time, not just this forum.
What went wrong then? What did the Sexual Revolution basically promise to average progressive women, and why did that turn out to be a lie?
I’d argue that the more or less unstated promise of the Sexual Revolution to young single women was that: a) they will be sexually free without inviting social shame i.e. normalized sexual experimentation and promiscuity on their part will not have an unfavorable long-term effect on men’s attitudes towards them, and women will not sexually shame one another anymore b) they will be able to leave their constrictive gender roles to the extent they see fit, but this will not lead to social issues and anomie because men will be willing to fill those roles instead i.e. men will have no problem becoming stay-at-home dads, nurses, kindergarteners, doing housework etc.
And none of that turned out to be true.
Am I correct in this assessment?
What seems strange to me with progressives is that after rejecting most Christian values that constituted the backbone of Western civilization, they still hold on to some of them arbitrarily.
'Kinkshaming' is bad, sex work is good, but rape is still some kind of immense evil. Raping a sex worker should be seen as a variant of theft and assault. Raping a promiscuous person some kind of assault, depending on the circumstances.
If it's up to a Christian person not to be offended by porn, drag shows, Pride parades, and all of the other almost inescapable manifestations of progressive values, why can't a feminist put the awkwardness or repulsion of unwanted sex aside?
As the joke goes, statistically, 9 out of 10 people enjoy gangrape. Rape is not your thing, it does not mean that you have a right to deprieve other people of their fun.
I think I did see some European progressives defending immigrant rapists to the tune of 'they don't know it's wrong, it's their culture', aside from that rape still seem like a big taboo. Another exception seems to be with the topic of transwomen in bathrooms/prisons.
Now that every progressive woman is probably using anti-pregnancy contraptions, the worst outcome of rape seems to be some discomfort, especially if the receiving end does not struggle.
At a time where suggestions are made to abolish police forces or to provide financial reparations, would it be so crazy to include physical reparations to those who have unfairly been deprived of physical affection?
I don't think this is an example of progressives holding on to a particular Christian value arbitrarily; rather, I think it's the case that rape-as-a-major-bad-thing fits particularly cleanly into a philosophy organized around an oppressor/oppressed dynamic coupled with avoidance-of-harm as a major value. A Christian who retains the values of his heritage would agree that rape is a particularly bad thing, but his philosophical basis is different (e.g. the strong should protect the weak and sex is sacred).
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