Discussion “The real sexual revolution is going to be holding abusers accountable.” —KS Prior
Discussion “The real sexual revolution is going to be holding abusers accountable.” —KS Prior
I saw this on my Tumblr feed today. I thought it was a great quote. Who is this KS Prior? I want to know more about them. I look up the quote. The author's full name is supposedly Karen Swallow Prior. I try to find the source.
As I try to find the source, I come across other articles. One written by Prior herself called Don’t Believe in Systemic Racism? Let’s Talk About the Sexual Revolution seemed promising, upon an initial skim. It appeared this article was directed towards a white audience that didn't believe in systemic racism, and she was attempting to get them to see how it is indeed real. But I didn't fully read it, because another article in the search results caught my eye.
The pro-life witness of Karen Swallow Prior was a piece by Jonathon Van Maren about an editorial Prior wrote which was published in The New York Times much to the dismay of the Times' largely liberal and pro-choice demographic. The article paints Prior as the victim of unjustified Internet backlash, because she is such a noble pro-life "pre-born"-baby-saving Christian woman who "had been arrested in front of abortion clinics (five times)", Jonathon laments, and people being upset at her pro-forced birth romanization of Texas' harsh abortion ban laws are clearly liberal idiots because they "did not engage with Prior’s arguments." (What arguments, anyway? Her entire editorial was just praising Texas' brutal laws and blatantly ignoring any actual issues that stem from said laws with whataboutisms, flowery language, and minimization of the serious harms it causes women.)
I now go back to her systemic racism article with a new perspective. I see things like: "But one need not embrace critical race theory—I certainly don’t—in order to recognize that systemic racism exists and has ongoing ripple effects that can’t always be identified or contained." The "I certainly don't" gave weird vibes. Then I see how she refers to the "sexual revolution" -- it is written from the perspective of only the "sexual revolution of the liberal male", which to be fair, is indeed what the sexual revolution of the 60's did become. Dworkin writes about the history and downfalls of the "sexual revolution" in Right-Wing Women from a feminist perspective. How does Prior write about it?
Karen Swallow Prior From innumerable screens and stages, posters and pages, it flashes the larger-than-life-sized images of sex. From countless racks and shelves, it pushes the books which a few years ago were considered pornography. From myriad loudspeakers, it broadcasts the words and rhythms of pop-music erotica. And constantly, over the intellectual Muzak, comes the message that sex will save you and libido make you free.
From a male-worshipping perspective. There is no consideration of the suffering and degradation of females that have happened as a result of the "sexual revolution." The women, and women's subjugation, are irrelevant. And males, like an omnipotent God, are just... invisible, but ever-present! Men are still to be respected and revered by a God-fearing Christian woman, even though men are the ones who consume the porn, who demand and create the "images of sex", who make the women and girls perform in "pop-music erotica." So to avoid facing the perpetrator, men, this quote is entirely sexless. It references sex without the sexes. Without the victim and without the oppressor.
It fascinates me that she is able to explain systemic racism, and yet, what she defines as "the sexual revolution" would be more akin to systemic sexism. But you can't bring that up when you are the loyal servant to a patriarchal religion!
Regardless, I do think her attempts to get her racist white Christian community to understand systemic racism is real is a good thing, like, the main point of her systemic racism article is good, but this isn't what I'm rambling for. I'm rambling on about this pro-forced-birth Christian woman, because this is exactly the kind of thing that starts this "blending" of the right-wing with radical feminists that I mentioned in YesYourNigel's What happened to radical feminism? thread. "The real sexual revolution is going to be holding abusers accountable." is still a great quote. (Which, I have not been able to find any source for? Just a handful of people retweeting it and crediting her for the quote.) I would assume many feminists would agree? The "sexual revolution" was merely an opening of the floodgates for men to showcase their hatred of women more. Holding sexual abusers accountable would create an actual sexual revolution. And yet, going beyond the surface of a badass quote, it's like, what do feminists share with this pro-forced-birth woman?
Idk, just was weird to fall down some pro-forced-birth Christian rabbithole, all from seeing a simple thoughtful quote calling out rape culture. So strange.
“The real sexual revolution is going to be holding abusers accountable.” —KS Prior
I saw this on my Tumblr feed today. I thought it was a great quote. Who is this KS Prior? I want to know more about them. I look up the quote. The author's full name is supposedly Karen Swallow Prior. I try to find the source.
As I try to find the source, I come across other articles. One written by Prior herself called Don’t Believe in Systemic Racism? Let’s Talk About the Sexual Revolution seemed promising, upon an initial skim. It appeared this article was directed towards a white audience that didn't believe in systemic racism, and she was attempting to get them to see how it is indeed real. But I didn't fully read it, because another article in the search results caught my eye.
The pro-life witness of Karen Swallow Prior was a piece by Jonathon Van Maren about an editorial Prior wrote which was published in The New York Times much to the dismay of the Times' largely liberal and pro-choice demographic. The article paints Prior as the victim of unjustified Internet backlash, because she is such a noble pro-life "pre-born"-baby-saving Christian woman who "had been arrested in front of abortion clinics (five times)", Jonathon laments, and people being upset at her pro-forced birth romanization of Texas' harsh abortion ban laws are clearly liberal idiots because they "did not engage with Prior’s arguments." (What arguments, anyway? Her entire editorial was just praising Texas' brutal laws and blatantly ignoring any actual issues that stem from said laws with whataboutisms, flowery language, and minimization of the serious harms it causes women.)
I now go back to her systemic racism article with a new perspective. I see things like: "But one need not embrace critical race theory—I certainly don’t—in order to recognize that systemic racism exists and has ongoing ripple effects that can’t always be identified or contained." The "I certainly don't" gave weird vibes. Then I see how she refers to the "sexual revolution" -- it is written from the perspective of only the "sexual revolution of the liberal male", which to be fair, is indeed what the sexual revolution of the 60's did become. Dworkin writes about the history and downfalls of the "sexual revolution" in Right-Wing Women from a feminist perspective. How does Prior write about it?
Karen Swallow Prior From innumerable screens and stages, posters and pages, it flashes the larger-than-life-sized images of sex. From countless racks and shelves, it pushes the books which a few years ago were considered pornography. From myriad loudspeakers, it broadcasts the words and rhythms of pop-music erotica. And constantly, over the intellectual Muzak, comes the message that sex will save you and libido make you free.
From a male-worshipping perspective. There is no consideration of the suffering and degradation of females that have happened as a result of the "sexual revolution." The women, and women's subjugation, are irrelevant. And males, like an omnipotent God, are just... invisible, but ever-present! Men are still to be respected and revered by a God-fearing Christian woman, even though men are the ones who consume the porn, who demand and create the "images of sex", who make the women and girls perform in "pop-music erotica." So to avoid facing the perpetrator, men, this quote is entirely sexless. It references sex without the sexes. Without the victim and without the oppressor.
It fascinates me that she is able to explain systemic racism, and yet, what she defines as "the sexual revolution" would be more akin to systemic sexism. But you can't bring that up when you are the loyal servant to a patriarchal religion!
Regardless, I do think her attempts to get her racist white Christian community to understand systemic racism is real is a good thing, like, the main point of her systemic racism article is good, but this isn't what I'm rambling for. I'm rambling on about this pro-forced-birth Christian woman, because this is exactly the kind of thing that starts this "blending" of the right-wing with radical feminists that I mentioned in YesYourNigel's What happened to radical feminism? thread. "The real sexual revolution is going to be holding abusers accountable." is still a great quote. (Which, I have not been able to find any source for? Just a handful of people retweeting it and crediting her for the quote.) I would assume many feminists would agree? The "sexual revolution" was merely an opening of the floodgates for men to showcase their hatred of women more. Holding sexual abusers accountable would create an actual sexual revolution. And yet, going beyond the surface of a badass quote, it's like, what do feminists share with this pro-forced-birth woman?
Idk, just was weird to fall down some pro-forced-birth Christian rabbithole, all from seeing a simple thoughtful quote calling out rape culture. So strange.