Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
Over at Reason, Debbie Nathan has a fascinating review of How Sex Became A Civil Liberty, a new history of the ACLU's focus on sex by Leigh Ann Wheeler.
Any book that discusses both civil liberties and sex is one I want to read:
...she has assembled a story about men and women working through their own sexual passions and contradictions as they shaped a legal and political practice for the entire country. She reveals how activists pushed, slouched, and pushed some more to arm their fellow citizens with sexual rights, even as those rights provoked further conflicts, including among ACLUers themselves.
Did you know that the founder of the ACLU was repeatedly raped as a child? I had no idea:
Wheeler's story starts in the 1920s, as young, educated men and women flocked to Greenwich Village to partake of a modernist cultural revolution with heady new ideas about the nature and purpose of sex. One of these migrants was Roger Baldwin. As a 12- or 13-year-old in the 1890s, he had been seduced by his family's Irish servant. He'd spent the next few years having sex with her, learning, as he put it, "everything that was to be known, even how to prevent getting her pregnant."
Oh, I'm sorry. "Seduced." That's usually what we call adults having sex with pre-teens, right? Anyway:
In the Village, Baldwin met Madeleine Zabriskie Doty, who had spent her youth wondering if she was physically attracted to women rather than men. By the 1920s, she was in love with Baldwin. The couple wed in the new style, sans ring or vows. And Baldwin founded the ACLU.
Baldwin was a proponent of "free love," believing that living a "creative life" required "many loves shared together openly, honestly, and joyously." Like other women she knew, Doty agreed that her husband could have lovers, but she was reluctant to take her own. She became accidentally pregnant at least once by Baldwin. She managed to end the pregnancy, though it's not clear how.
We learn that it was in this milieu that the push for birth control education was launched. I can imagine that would help Baldwin continue his lifestyle. Then this:
The early ACLU leadership vacationed together at Martha's Vineyard. On isolated beaches there, many practiced nudism. Nudists today are largely winked at if not ignored. But in the 1930s and '40s, they saw themselves as an avant-garde movement. Going undressed, they believed, would strengthen democracy by challenging the class distinctions so visible in clothing. They also thought the sight of people casually strolling in the buff would cool the frisson of obscenity.
OK, now they've lost me. Nudists are the worst! But if it's for challenging class distinctions, maybe it's better?
Anyway, the ACLU's support of pornography and abortion are discussed as is the conflict between gender rights and civil liberties (e.g. rape-shield laws).
As Nathan points out, whatever conflicts have arisen, "the ACLU's support of unfettered sexual expression" has been supported by the public:
How did the country come to these card-carrying positions? Through the intrepid and conflicted men and women of the early ACLU, Wheeler argues. By working out their own issues in an organizational and political sphere, they stretched their sexual revolution clear through the 20th century and into 21st.
And I think we can all agree that the culture is so much better now that we have an army of Baldwins free to spread their seed across the land without worrying about babies or other entanglements.
I wish there were more civil libertarians who simply pushed for greater freedom on philosophical grounds, not because of their own deep-seated behavioral issues. I can't help but wonder how a liberty movement grounded in virtue would differ from one grounded in vice.
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Jul '12
Re: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
The polls don't really support the ACLU's assertion that the public supports "unfettered sexual expression":
http://www.gallup.com/poll/154799/americans-including-catholics-say-birth-control-morally.aspx
31% of the public finds pornography morally acceptable and 7% finds having an affair morally acceptable.
Plus, I'm sure that if we polled the American public on "swinging" or open relationships, we wouldn't get a positive response.
May '10
Re: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
I didn't know, but it doesn't surprise me.
It all boils down sex.
Sex ordered toward love and life (i.e., in marriage) is a force for unity and good in human society. The very source and foundation of the civil society, bringing about cultural excellence and flourishing. Sex (dis-)ordered toward self-gratification brings about dissolution and destruction. It leads to misery.
See Prof. Rahe's recent post for more.
Nov '10
Re: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
The Sexual Revolution --at the forefront of which was the ACLU-- has left the field strewn with battlefield casualties. Recently, after hearing yet another young woman's sad, painful story I was moved to remark: “There is NOTHING in the world that obliges you to be anyone’s doormat!” But they labor under a burden of bad ideas and bad spirituality, that prepares them for failure and victimhood. I just read that the US birthrate is clearly below replacement levels, as in Europe. Quelle surprise.
May '10
Re: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
And how about that infamous "Kinsey Report", on which so much of the popular "understanding" of sex since the sixties is based?
More at EndtheLie.com - http://EndtheLie.com/books-and-reading-material/the-kinsey-report-and-the-destruction-of-the-family/#ixzz2E0Dfrc6a
Edited on December 3, 2012 at 4:29pmFeb '11
Re: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
.....
I can't help but wonder how a liberty movement grounded in virtue would differ from one grounded in vice. · · 21 minutes ago
Take a look at the conservative movement, especially the so-con wing, as an example of a liberty movement grounded in virtue. We're broadly supportive of liberty; we recognize, though, that unfettered liberty is undesirable as it devolves into libertinism, serves as a poor base for a solid and prosperous and cohesive society/community, and is generally transitory if possible at all.
May '10
Re: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
The left has always understood that the way to get the power it wants is to debauch the public. A debauched people is a readily exploited and manipulated people.
That's why the family and the Church have ever been the main targets of the left. Strong families and churches lead to strong, self-standing individuals, not amenable to tyranny.
Mar '11
Re: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
Yes, quite. This habitual practice, matched especially with the laser-like focus on the worst of all sins, hypocrisy, makes any notion of public morality practically untenable.
As far as the ACLU, add me to the ranks of the unsurprised. Which is honestly a shame--in a system like ours where press and assembly freedoms play an important role, the ACLU might have been a classically liberal organization challenging both sides: instead it is a heady Marxist-Existentialist cesspool masquerading as a 1st amendment defender.
Oct '11
Re: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Oh, I'm sorry. "Seduced." That's usually what we call adults having sex with pre-teens, right?
It's what we call female adults having sex with male pre-teens. We all know (and teach) that boys are sex-crazed maniac animals. Rape is mostly something those wicked men do, along with domestic violence, sexual assault, and indecent exposure.
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
I wish there were more civil libertarians who simply pushed for greater freedom on philosophical grounds, not because of their own deep-seated behavioral issues. I can't help but wonder how a liberty movement grounded in virtue would differ from one grounded in vice.
I know what you mean. Even when I agree with my friends on a civil libertarian end result (such as pot smoking), it's for different reasons: they want it because pot smoking is enjoyable and not especially harmful (as opposed to saturated fats; ugh!), while I want it because people can do with their bodies as they feel.
Edited on December 3, 2012 at 4:54pmSep '10
Re: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
But remember: its social conservatives who are obsessed with sex.
Dec '10
Re: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
A more textbook example of ad hominem would be difficult to find. It it pointless to reason with unreason, so I will not further comment.
Re: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
Oh come on.
Dec '10
Re: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Oh come on. · 10 minutes ago
Did You Know the ACLU was Founded by a Bunch of Perverts? is not ad hominem
Jul '12
Re: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
In New York v. Ferber, the ACLU supported the position that the First Amendment protects the sale of child pornography. It doesn't get more morally bankrupt than that.
Sep '12
Re: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
The ACLU's ownership of sex mores is brilliant marketing on their part -- afterall, anything salacious will get attention and $$ for their 'causes.' They should use Madonna as their spokesperson!
Dec '11
Re: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
Foxman
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Oh come on. · 10 minutes ago
Did You Know the ACLU was Founded by a Bunch of Perverts? is not ad hominem · 11 minutes ago
No. Its a description. The logical conclusion that their position is wrong because they are perverts is an ad hominem.
Her arguement is more a "they are right for the wrong reasons."
Edited on December 3, 2012 at 5:42pmRe: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
Foxman
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
Oh come on. · 10 minutes ago
Did You Know the ACLU was Founded by a Bunch of Perverts? is not ad hominem · 14 minutes ago
But I thought you weren't going to comment any more!
In any case, if I had only read the headline and not the book, the review of the book or the post about the review of the book, I might have written your comment, too.
Dec '10
Re: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
Back in the late 1950's and early 1960's we didn't need the ACLU's help with sex, we learned about it the old fashioned way, in the back seat of a 1957 Chevy Convertible listening to Doo Wop, Roy Orbison and The Beachboys.
Yeah, it was a black 1957 Chevy convertible, with a souped-up 270 and a 3-speed Hurst on the floor, the girls loved it, running and cruising on the wild side, on occasion we kept it under 90 mph. It was a the best of all times to grow up and discover life.
Dec '10
Re: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
jetstream: Back in the late 1950's and early 1960's we didn't need the ACLU's help with sex, we learned about it the old fashioned way, in the back seat of a 1957 Chevy Convertible listening to Doo Wop, Roy Orbison and The Beachboys.
Yeah, it was a black 1957 Chevy convertible, with a souped-up 270 and a 3-speed Hurst on the floor, the girls loved it, running and cruising on the wild side, on occasion we kept it under 90 mph. It was a the best of all times to grow up and discover life.
· 1 minute ago
A 270?
Sep '10
Re: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
Free love means never having to say you're sorry.
Oct '10
Re: Did You Know The ACLU Was Founded By A Bunch Of Pervs?
This post brings this quote from Huxley to mind:
"I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning, consequently assumed it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption . . The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics; he is also concerned to prove there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do . . For myself, as no doubt for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom."
I think that's the difference between a liberty movement rooted in virtue and one rooted in vice.