Thursday, October 05, 2006
Moral Authority vs Joy
In a week when deaths in Baghdad from roadside bombings and sectarian violence reached an all-time high, what are Americans focusing on? Something much more sexy: the scandal over Congressman Foley's sexually explicit email come-ons to a 16-year-old Congressional page from Louisiana.
The Times is right to worry that Republicans and conservatives may use this scandal as the basis for more ugly gay-bashing. As spectators, would we be any less horrified by Foley's behavior if he'd been suggestively emailing girl pages? I have a feeling the answer there is yes--heterosexual male Congressmen flirting with the young women who bring them coffee can be brushed off far more easily than gay male Congressmen hitting on teenage boys.
But haven't we learned by now (thanks, Monica Lewinsky) that young people in the halls of power are at risk of sexual predators--some of them very illustrious men indeed?
Power corrupts, and what more gratifying way to display and enjoy personal power than by sexually manipulating a beautiful young thing, male or female?
David Brooks, bless his soul, has seized the occasion to compare this real-life story of sexual predation with a fictional one--Eve Ensler's monologue in The Vagina Monologues, told in the voice of a young girl who was seduced by an older woman, and loved every minute of it. The Ensler monologue celebrates the awakening of a young girl's sexuality, and passes over the fact that it was an older woman who called the shots in their sexual encounter.
Both scenarios are wrong, Brooks says, "because when an adult seduces a child, it tears the social fabric that joins all adults and all children. "
Family values, here we come again!
Brooks drives his point home in no uncertain terms:
"In a country filled with parents looking for a way to raise their children in a morally disordered environment, Foley’s act is just one more symptom of a contagious disease.
The problem is that the "moral authority" Brooks is invoking here is synonymous with abstinence-only sex ed, parental consent for teenage abortions, and the sanctity of exclusively heterosexual marriage. Foley himself fades in importance behind this much larger, much more dangerous agenda: it's no longer about the rights of young people on Capitol Hill to mingle with their elected representatives unharmed, it's about tightening the screws of "moral authority" in an increasingly decadent society.
Where is that decadence coming from? Not from Eve Ensler. Not from sex ed. Not from upholding a woman's right to control her own body and reproductive health.
It's coming from sleazebags like Congressman Foley and the whole stinkingly corrupt Republican leadership now falling all over each other in their efforts to point fingers at others and get out of the mud-wrestling match unsmeared.
It's coming from an increasingly sexualized media, from internet to TV to film, that gets off on portraying women and children as sexual objects to be hit on and abused.
It's coming from our heartless capitalist system, which forces parents to work ever longer hours, leaving children alone and exposed to predation--whether through media or in vivo--and without enough guidance and support.
Our age of innocence has most definitely come to an end, in more ways than just the sexual. Americans must finally turn and confront what we have become. And we must summon the vision and the backbone to set ourselves on a new path. More "moral authority" is not what is needed here. It's more kindness, more compassion, more of the true joy that comes from giving joy to others.
The Times is right to worry that Republicans and conservatives may use this scandal as the basis for more ugly gay-bashing. As spectators, would we be any less horrified by Foley's behavior if he'd been suggestively emailing girl pages? I have a feeling the answer there is yes--heterosexual male Congressmen flirting with the young women who bring them coffee can be brushed off far more easily than gay male Congressmen hitting on teenage boys.
But haven't we learned by now (thanks, Monica Lewinsky) that young people in the halls of power are at risk of sexual predators--some of them very illustrious men indeed?
Power corrupts, and what more gratifying way to display and enjoy personal power than by sexually manipulating a beautiful young thing, male or female?
David Brooks, bless his soul, has seized the occasion to compare this real-life story of sexual predation with a fictional one--Eve Ensler's monologue in The Vagina Monologues, told in the voice of a young girl who was seduced by an older woman, and loved every minute of it. The Ensler monologue celebrates the awakening of a young girl's sexuality, and passes over the fact that it was an older woman who called the shots in their sexual encounter.
Both scenarios are wrong, Brooks says, "because when an adult seduces a child, it tears the social fabric that joins all adults and all children. "
Family values, here we come again!
Brooks drives his point home in no uncertain terms:
"In a country filled with parents looking for a way to raise their children in a morally disordered environment, Foley’s act is just one more symptom of a contagious disease.
"In the long run, the party that benefits from events like the Foley scandal will be the party that defines the core threats to the social fabric, and emerges as the most ardent champion of moral authority."
The problem is that the "moral authority" Brooks is invoking here is synonymous with abstinence-only sex ed, parental consent for teenage abortions, and the sanctity of exclusively heterosexual marriage. Foley himself fades in importance behind this much larger, much more dangerous agenda: it's no longer about the rights of young people on Capitol Hill to mingle with their elected representatives unharmed, it's about tightening the screws of "moral authority" in an increasingly decadent society.
Where is that decadence coming from? Not from Eve Ensler. Not from sex ed. Not from upholding a woman's right to control her own body and reproductive health.
It's coming from sleazebags like Congressman Foley and the whole stinkingly corrupt Republican leadership now falling all over each other in their efforts to point fingers at others and get out of the mud-wrestling match unsmeared.
It's coming from an increasingly sexualized media, from internet to TV to film, that gets off on portraying women and children as sexual objects to be hit on and abused.
It's coming from our heartless capitalist system, which forces parents to work ever longer hours, leaving children alone and exposed to predation--whether through media or in vivo--and without enough guidance and support.
Our age of innocence has most definitely come to an end, in more ways than just the sexual. Americans must finally turn and confront what we have become. And we must summon the vision and the backbone to set ourselves on a new path. More "moral authority" is not what is needed here. It's more kindness, more compassion, more of the true joy that comes from giving joy to others.
