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Victoria Woodhull, Conservatives, and Sex
The Daily Shot here on Ricochet informed anyone who didn’t already know that Hillary Clinton isn’t making history. Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to be nominated for the presidency, albeit not by a major party. What caught my attention was the reminder of her platform back in 1872, which included the radical suggestion that women should have freedom from governmental interference in their choices on marriage, divorce, and bearing children. It is more than a little depressing to think that these matters are not necessarily settled to this day, given the partisan fascination with forcing governmental involvement in at least two out of three of those matters.
In my generally non-partisan neck of the woods, my general goal is to extricate the personal lives of individuals from the mire of governmental regulation. In other words, I am generally opposed to any laws which happen to invade anyone’s bedroom, and in that sense, Woodhull and I probably would have quite a bit in common. She is remembered today in the form of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, which is dedicated to promoting sexual freedom. That organization may or may not be appreciated by many readers here, since its work includes encouraging comprehensive sex education in public schools, promoting rights of LGBT persons, and protecting the rights of sex workers. It also makes me odd person out around here, since I support the Woodhull Foundation’s work, and have been known to speak out in support of legalizing prostitution as well as radically increasing sex education in public schools.
That latter issue is one that has been bothering me more than a little lately, particularly in context with conservatives. Currently, I am working on a couple larger projects that involve sex education, and have been running a survey on the topic of what should be included in curricula for children from K-12. I’ve had no major problems getting people from the left side of the aisle to take a few moments to answer my handful of multiple answer checkbox questions. The right side of the aisle has been less than willing.
This is not surprising, and I’d been warned about it by many people who have been involved in research on sexual behavior. I was also warned about the apparently inevitable backlash I should get when I actually start compiling data, and writing on it. Yes, I should be prepared for complaints about the bias of my results, that will undoubtedly reflect only the thoughts and feelings of individuals from the left side of the aisle. Apparently it won’t matter if I humbly point out that I can’t include results from people who refuse to take the survey in the first place.
I know that the immediate response for many conservatives when they are asked to take a survey on what should be included in sex education in public schools is that schools should not be providing this education. Thanks to the ongoing research that I’ve been doing, I also know that as a general rule, people who did not have meaningful sex education in school (or anywhere) seem to be for children today getting what they didn’t. The handful of people so far who reported that they received no sex education at all make it difficult for me to maintain a purely unemotional distance from what I am trying to do. They make me sad, because even though I do not know who they are, I know that they undoubtedly feel that they have missed some important things in their personal lives simply from lack of education.
As for how I know which side of the aisle these people may be from, that is simply a matter of keeping track of where the survey has recently been shared. Most of the people who follow me on social media are generally conservative, so the initial results I received were from them. Then the survey was shared by some friends with more left-leaning followers. The latter group was much larger, of course. Researchers who warned me about the troubles they’ve had with getting data from the right side of the aisle predicted that, saying that even though I interact with many conservatives, it’s not likely that will help in balancing results. They further predicted that I would likely lose followers over the survey and my current work in general. Of course, that has proven to be true as well.
However, I am not willing to give up entirely, so I will request it here. My current sex education survey is here, and I would appreciate it if at least some of you would consider balancing the data at least a little bit. I can’t promise that the questions would not shock you, but I will say it is important to remember one thing. This is about education for K-12, which means that age appropriate content is what is being suggested. The vast majority of content that has anything to do with various sex acts would not be taught to elementary school children. It would be reserved for when students approach and reach the age of consent for sex in their given states.
I can empathize with Woodhull, and her fight for freedom for women. Obviously, she was opposed by most men, but also by women who were content with the status quo. Right now, I end up in the middle between conservatives who are opposed to various issues I believe in, and leftists who want far too radical changes. In any given day, I may be called perverse, a harlot, and a prude, depending on the source. But, what I do is still worth it, since it is working toward a point where we will hopefully see radical reductions in the number of rapes, less child sexual abuse, less domestic violence, and fewer people victimized by sex trafficking. I can take a little name-calling for that.
Published in General
Don’t the kid’s parents count as responsible adults?
Since when can public education be relied upon to employ responsible adults. Given how many teachers, especially the ladies, are molesting children?
If you are suggesting that teaching about anatomy and reproduction should be done in science class, I agree.
Has Liz Harrison engaged here yet?
I’m afraid we shocked her.
When I was 12, we got a new school bus driver. One day when I got on the bus, he said something obscene to me (a description of what he had in his pants).
When my daughter was in preschool, they brought in two
nincompoopswomen to conduct the “Stranger Danger” program. I didn’t give my permission but they gave it to my child anyway without telling me. The two women turned out to be victims of child molestation who apparently believed every man on earth is a predator. They frightened my daughter to the point of trauma. I believe many of these sex ed lesson plans and books are written by damaged people who might mean well but are terribly misguided.Liz, Victoria, and me. All with hand to the chin. Coincidence? I think not.
I doubt it. This
‘In my generally non-partisan neck of the woods, my general goal is to extricate the personal lives of individuals from the mire of governmental regulation. In other words, I am generally opposed to any laws which happen to invade anyone’s bedroom, and in that sense, Woodhull and I probably would have quite a bit in common. She is remembered today in the form of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, which is dedicated to promoting sexual freedom.’
seems to try to say she is approaching this issue with a somewhat libertarian mindset, but it is very difficult to accept that she would fail to expect this reaction from social and law-and-order conservatives at Ricochet.
Yeah, I wouldn’t repose too much confidence in that survey other than as a source of ideas to continue your research.
I have no objection to parents teaching kids whatever they want. But not all parents do. And I’d rather some adult with some training teach them than … well, who the hell knows.
I’m sure the Internet is full of decent information, but I’m also sure that there’s probably tons of terrible information out there. I’d rather a kid get it from a responsible adult than from other kids whose knowledge comes from porn mixed with ignorance.
Or it’s the weekend and she’s got stuff going on.
Was I unclear in my prior comments? Do you get that that is not at all what I was saying?
That is an incredibly lame excuse Fred, c’mon. She posted on the weekend so she should engage in the conversation. We all have stuff going on during the weekend – if one is sooo busy (particularly a contributor), don’t post. She doesn’t deserve contributor status if she won’t engage.
Yes, I saw that and I liked part of it. But then it goes on to speak of having been “warned” by others about us recalcitrant Conservatives. Probably by people who have zero idea what we’re really about or why we object. But my other issue is that the post author seems to be on a Mission. I don’t want our children to be someone’s mission, especially not someone who’s involved with a foundation which is “dedicated to promoting sexual freedom.” I mean how could there possibly be more sexual freedom than we already have?! What’s left to “fight” for? The ability to have sex in the middle of the frozen food aisle?
Progressives prefer multiple-choice questions.
Conservatives prefer essay questions.
Oooh, let’s do a survey.
I believe a contributor should respond to comments on their posts (you may pick more than one):
Or Church?
Don’t give them ideas haha!
Her post went up on Saturday. Idk when she submitted it or when it went in the queue.
I don’t know that it’s fair to jump on her for not responding on a Sunday evening.
The post has been active for 24 hours Fred. Barring an emergency, even if she is swamped she could jump in and thank people for responding and say she will get back with us. But when contributors post something that is controversial and just abandon the post, what are we to think?
I’m coming in pretty late but the government cannot be trusted to teach sex Ed in any proper manner at all. Especially when they use groups like NARAL who teaches that sex with condoms and abstinence are equally effective at prevention of pregnancy and STDs
Exactly! Who can forget Clinton’s inimitable Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders’s school condom program? Oh excuse me while I fall off my chair laughing. Ahem ahem She engineered a program of handing out condoms on school campuses, and each condom was stapled (picture that in your mind’s eye – STAPLED – with two tiny holes in each condom) to a helpful brochure on safe sex. HAHAHAHA Thanks, Federal Government.
And, so???
Your alarm bells should be going off here, Fred. Seems that underneath your principled libertarianism you might have the heart of a social engineer. Of course you mean well. But, what’s the trade-off? — Individual liberty.
The government doesn’t even know how to effectively use a condom, so how can they teach our kids? Geez the incompetencies of these people never ceases to amaze
Or she’s away for the weekend. In the last three weekends I’ve had a memorial service, a gigantic party, and a wedding that was out of town. It’s July. People do stuff in the summer.
Yeeeeeesh. Cut people a break sometimes.
My primary objection isn’t the underlying condescension — “What can you people possibly know about sexuality and reproduction that qualifies you to teach your own children?? Leave it to the ‘experts’.” Verily, the irony is yummilicious.
Nor is it the sexualization of the classroom (and everything else) at younger and younger ages for our kids, although I detest that.
No, it’s lifelessness and joylessness of our human sexuality that results from the attempt to separate morality, meaning, and purpose from sex. It’s the desacrilization of sex that I find outrageous and offensive. It’s no wonder our culture is so dehumanizing. Kids are being taught to use others rather than love them.
No thanks government schools. We’ve got this.
And not for nothing, but you get what she’s saying right?
And she takes the time to crank out nearly a thousand words to say that. To beg conservatives to speak up and express their views and help influence things.
What does she get in response? People who stop after the opening demographic question because its not worded the way they want it to be. And then complaints because she’s not responding to 50+ comments in a timely manner on a weekend.
Look, everybody is welcome to their opinion. And I understand people have strong views on this subject (as do I), but jeezum crow, cut the lady some freakin’ slack.
O Brave New World, that has such people in’t!
Fred this is ricochet where we challenge ideas. So you put up a post of your ideas and then we discuss. That is what is happening. It is honorable to defend our dear post author but this is what we do on this site.