If everyone had just agreed to ignore these women’s deranged fantasies when their disconnection with reality became hideously apparent roughly 25 years ago, they’d be nothing more than a fringe group today (occupying a position on the credibility ladder somewhere between young-Earth creationists and those who insist that the moon landings were faked). – “Hurdling Over Reality”
There are only a few differences between the way this blog was structured in August 2012 and the way it was structured through 2013 and 2014. The archival links were still appearing in “That Was the Week That Was” rather than “Links”; Q & A columns were still monthly rather than weekly; I hadn’t yet started the weekly Cliterati reprints; and the “My Favorites” feature was still going on. Other than that, though, everything was in place; this month’s holidays were “Lughnasadh” and “Vinalia Rustica“, its harlotography “Mary Anne Clarke” and its fictional interlude “Friend“. I was writing a great deal about “sex trafficking” hysteria; “The Lion and the Ox“, “Soap Opera“, “Creating the Crisis“,
“Obfuscation Via Dysphemisms” and “Small Choice” were all on the topic, and “Worse Than I Thought” marked the beginning of government’s concerted effort to replace the “War on Drugs” with a War on Whores. There were two other columns of recurring types: “August Movies” and “The Pearls Ain’t Free“, a song column.
This was also the month in which, slowly but surely, the attitudes of sensible people who actually care about facts began to turn toward decriminalization; I covered that beginning in “Shift in the Wind“, which has since become the subtitle for news items about public support for decrim. “Too Young To Know” has become the heading for items about negating the agency of underage sex workers, “Whatever They Need To Say” the one about using prostitution laws to implement land grabs, and “The Public Eye” the one about individual sex workers in the news. Rounding out the month were “Childish Things“, a discussion of childish, primitive ideas that still bedevil mankind; “Hurdling Over Reality“, which asks why feminists get so bent out of shape when men find female athletes attractive; “Show and Tell“, which provides pictorial evidence of the Ashley Madison scam; “Legitimate Outrage“, which points out that both American political parties are very anti-science; and “False Target“, which debunks the concept of “rape culture”.
