Dancing Naked or Something

Guess what? I just read something on the intertubes that pissed me off. Surprised, aren’t you? Here’s the money quote:

There are a ton of family-oriented, religious and conservative people in the network[...] I try really hard to be open minded about things such as gay marriage and sexual freedoms but draw the line at exploiting women and children[...]¹

Based on the context of the quote (about ads running on blogs and whether bloggers can reject or accept them) I’m inclined to believe that the author here is saying that the family-oriented, religious and conservative bloggers are one in the same and that special consideration should be taken for them because they are somehow good. I take that to mean non-conservative and/or religious² bloggers aren’t really “family-oriented”? Ok, maybe the author didn’t mean that and, with that in mind, this post is in no way directed at the person saying that nonsense. However, I see this kind of wording a lot. The “good” people are the “religious” and “conservative” ones and the ne’er-do-wells are the other side of the coin– you know, people like atheists, pagans³ and liberals. None of us can possibly be “family-oriented” apparently, according to those who are ideologically opposed to us.

And how does one equate gay marriage with exploiting women and children? Does my belief that gay adults who love each other be allowed to legally marry somehow bode ill for my fellow women and their offspring? What the fuck am I missing there?

I’ll tell you what I’m missing. I’m missing the fact that I am a good mother and that I do care about women and children. Not only those in my own family, but those in the house next door to me and across the street. I care if they have enough food in their cupboards or means to get decent health care. I care enough about the people in my hood that I will fight for them to get their basic fucking needs met while I’m busy taking care of my own family.

I care that people who have been together for 50 years and were finally allowed to marry found their union annulled because a bunch of bigots spent a lot of money to make people think somehow gay people were going to contaminate the drinking water with all their gay love. I care that grown people who’s private lives don’t affect mine negatively were once again denied the right to the same fucking legal protections my own marriage affords me. Why? Because OMG marriage is sacred.

Tell that to the two idiot fucking heterosexuals who almost destroyed my marriage and my family. They weren’t negatively influenced by the homosexual love. No, they were just letting their heterosexual hormones ruin all our lives. Where were all these “religious” and “conservative, family-oriented” people then? Oh, that’s right. It’s only sacred when people are trying it and those people give us the heebie-jeebies. The icky people are destroying the fabric of America, and if your heterosexual marriage is struggling… well, you suck as a wife and probably should learn to give better blow jobs⁴.

I’m a flaming liberal and am damned proud of it. I’m also proud of the fact that I’m a damned good mother who has instilled a strong sense of community and compassion into my children. My girls are smart and gifted and care about the world around them. They know– because their heathen mother taught them — that they don’t live in a vacuum and their success is directly related to the success of their neighbors. Why? Because we can’t do it alone and when one of us fails we all fail. Give one person (corporation) too much power and that person (corporation) will destroy us with greed.

How is it that liberals, gblt, and a/non-religious folk can’t be good and “family-oriented”? I look at my children and see love, compassion, goodness and am proud that they are that way. When my daughter gets pissed because some idiot kids are harassing an immigrant and stands up for that child, I feel pride. When my youngest daughter sees another child sitting away from the group and makes an effort to include that child, I feel pride. My children give to charity and worry about recycling. They are good citizens of this earth.

I get up in the morning with my children and make breakfast. I talk to them, worry about them, wash their clothes, but mostly just spend time with them. I am (mostly) patient and instructive and free with the hugs and kisses. Occasionally I utter a profanity, usually because I’m overdoing something or feeling a bit passionate about something. Sometimes I find some time for myself and write in my anonymous, personal blog about something that gets my goat. But then I’m back in the fold of my family⁵ and doing “family-oriented” stuff.

I find it personally offensive that there are so many people that proclaim that liberals and glbt folk can’t possibly be family-oriented, especially when there are so many who proclaim they are but then would deny healthcare and parents⁶ to children less fortunate than theirs. I find it contemptible that the only kind of “good” people are the “religious” kind when I know so many people who have no religion but who do whatever they can to help the world around them⁷.

But wait! It’s the liberals and glbts that have the porn sites and who run ads full of frontal nudity and things that children shouldn’t be allowed to look on, is it? Good “family-oriented, religious, conservative” people don’t engage in that kind of thing and are mindful always to keep the obscenity off their sites and away from the world. Bullshit. Bullshit. The biggest censors are the biggest fucking hypocrites and if you looked into their backgrounds, they are only “family-oriented” when in public. When in private they are deviants of the worst sort. They molest children, steal millions of dollars from retirees and exploit the poorest of the poor. Don’t worry, though, they tithe plenty to their mega-church.

Speaking of exploitation: point to me where the glbt community– and their supporters– are exploiting women and children. Where do you see children and their mothers in chains, working for pennies, shaking their asses suggestively in support of equal marriage rights? I want to see real examples of real exploitation, because I’ve never seen it from the gay marriage movement. But the two issues are co-mingled here? Why?

My child was recently “exploited” by a damned candy manufacturer and her preschool⁸. They sent my beautiful, blue-eyed 4 year-old home with an order form so that she could sell some over-priced, horrible-tasting candy for a “fund raiser”. Of course, the candy company and the school know that my daughter will work hard to sell that awful stuff and that her family will buy it from her. Why? Because she’s our angel and she’s damned cute. Exploitation. Of course, it’s not the kind we’re fighting on a global scale– like in India where young girls routinely go missing because they’re abducted into the sex industry and sold to rich old men from the States⁹ — but it’s still exploitative. Did we buy that 8 oz of disgusting, chocolate-covered nuts for $15? Of course we did– from a “religious” organization. Who was doing the exploiting there?

Ok, ignore my example above. But answer me how the glbt community is exploiting women and children. Please. Because, really, the tying together of those two issues is idiotic.

I’m losing my train of thought here, but only because I’m trying to imagine how it’s possible for someone not to care about their own family when they care so much about everyone else’s. My proud liberal heart just wants to see equal rights protection regardless of sexual orientation, children who don’t go without health care/food/housing, and women who don’t have to see their children suffer because of economic uncertainty. Shit, if that doesn’t make me “family-oriented” then fuck it. I don’t want to be.

Oh, and a disclaimer:
I have never claimed that Fabulously Jinxed was family friendly. In fact, any amount of reading will lead you to see that children who are of reading age should not be reading my blog. This entire blog is, in fact, Not Safe for Kids. And, no, my own children don’t read it because mama gets to have her own safe place too.

Also, I’ll add linkage later (to a couple of things)– if I get around to it. Seems I’m a little busy these days forgetting I have a family. Feel free to add some linkage of your own in the comments if it’s pertinent to the post and adds value to your argument (or mine, if that’s the case).

Popularity: 60% [?]

1. The gist of the conversation isn’t important here. [↩]
2. Which religion? [↩]
3. Non-Christian?? [↩]
4. Said by family-oriented, religious, conservative women [↩]
5. In which I’d been full time, as a stay-at-home liberal mother until very recently. [↩]
6. In the way of gay adoption. [↩]
7. Charity– a Christian value, yes? [↩]
8. She goes to a Christian preschool, by the way, because it’s the best in the area where I live. [↩]
9. No doubt good “conservative” men [↩]

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3. Gay Marriage..again
4. She ’strayed’ and civil unions suck
5. Women Change The World