I hope the buzzphrase “Cancel Culture” withers to death soon. The term is a performative exercise in conservative faux-outrage.It’s one of those dangerous propagandistic expressions that obscure facts. It’s a slap in the face to the struggles that sex and gender minorities face as they struggle to be heard and face penalties for speaking the truth.
If you want to talk about real “cancel culture” then we must talk about SEX, the most maligned and hateful kind of cancellation known to humanity. Sex is the ultimate global cancel culture. Doesn’t matter if you live in the first world or the third world, doesn’t matter what continent you are on: sex scares the crap out of media institutions globally. Sex books get canceled before they’re even published by editors who are afraid of being too sexually progressive– even when the editors themselves are LGBTQ+ or BDSM. Amazon cancels books if their covers are too sexy or content too explicit. YouTube and FaceBook cancel sex content every day. Meanwhile, banks ban the use of credit cards on porn and adult entertainment sites as if they own the right to dictate members’ viewing habits. All of us who have anything to do with sex-positive culture, whether as activists, writers, educators, or members of sex and gender minorities, are and have always been treated as shady characters by mainstream culture. Many, if not most, of us, have lost jobs or custody battles because of our sex/gender identities as well. (Leather hat tip to Jack McGeorge.)
Censorship is not just about a work you yank off the bookshelves or a person you yank off the air. Censorship is more pernicious than that. It’s about who you platform in the first place — do you pick haters or lovers? I think we know that media loves a hater and hates a lover. We have entire news networks dedicated to hate (Fox, NewsMax, etc.). Where are the ones devoted to love? Censorship is marginalizing and ignoring opposing views. It’s about stifling dissent and repeating wrongful but traditional narratives. Censorship is locking people out of social media because they used their First Amendment right to discuss controversial but legal and consensual choices. Where is OUR free speech? Censorship is erasing sex history, sex science, and erotic art and making it unavailable to the public.
We seldom see educated, sex-positive people allowed on big media shows, yet sexually ignorant buffoons get paydays for spouting baseless claims. In a sexually freer society, every anti-sex ideologue would be debated by sex-positive activists. Every time someone claims that porn causes violence (it doesn’t) they should get be shot down with facts. I want to hear from sex scientists and sex industry stars and sex activists who offer facts, affirmation, and educated support. I want to hear voices of encouragement, compassion, and wisdom about sex and gender diversity. I want to hear facts about sex, not religious or political ideology about sex.
The institutionalized silencing of sex extends leftward too. As a consumer of progressive political podcasts, I’ve been disappointed by how little time was devoted to the travesties Trump committed against LGBTQI+ communities, feminists, and social progressives in general. Why progressives are prudes is an essay for another time but suffice to say, if I want to know what’s really happening with sex in America, I have to seek it out through off-beat channels because few media sources have the integrity — or perhaps it’s emotional maturity and intellectual integrity — to even contemplate allowing adult discussion of sex.
To boil it down: sex-positive people don’t just face censorship but erasure. Media can’t wrap their mind around the positive changes we are witnessing in our lifetime, from the rise of transgender awareness to the normalization of sexual diversity. Sex-positive changes in culture that are making people pickier about partners and more aware of consent issues are interpreted as dangerous signals of a decline not only in morals but even in libido. And, though an overwhelming majority of Americans support sex education while 75% of Americans support LGBTQI rights, major media platforms for sex educators and queer activists to discuss their work and share their visions do not even exist. Instead, media continues to deceive the masses by letting anti-sex blowhards act as authoritative voices on sexual morality. As long as know-nothings are allowed to have the loudest voice, the bearers of facts, truths and science will remain drowned out by lies. That’s the biggest cancellation of all.
