BRB!
Hi everyone! Due to family visits and the need to clean my house in preparation for said visits (related note: how can toasters get so disgusting?), I’ll be away from the blog for a couple of days. To my fellow Ontarions, Happy Pride, and to the rest of you–talk amongst yourselves!
O, Canada…
[Image: A fallen red maple leaf sits alone on a concrete background, reminiscent of the Canadian flag.]
Today is Canada Day. I will celebrate the birthday of my adopted home in true Canadian fashion, with a hike in the woods and a trip to my city’s festival in the park. This particular Canada Day is a bittersweet one for many Canadians, I think–as the police misconduct and brutality of the G20 protests is still quite fresh, and Torontoans pick up the pieces of their aftermath.
Still, there is reason to celebrate the good in our home as we speak out against the bad. But because I am still new to Canada–and because, as living here has taught me, I am thoroughly USAmerican in my assumptions and knowledge–I’ll direct you to others who have done a much better job at this than I could: Pilgrim Soul from The Pursuit of Harpyness and Renee at Womanist Musings (though, as awesome as she is, I can’t get on board with the Tim Horton’s love–sorry, Renee! What’s the deal with the automatic cream-and-sugar anyway??).
Much love, Canada! Thanks for the health care.
Women’s Voices
Martha Nussbaum Demands Apology from Homophobic Huckabee
The hits just keep coming for Pride Month! Philosopher Martha Nussbaum, who (noted jerk) Mike Huckabee cited as providing philosophical justification for his characterization of same-sex sex as having an “ick factor,” has spoken up to defend her work from its misuse by politicians with poor reading comprehension skills.
She writes to Politico,
In fact, I have never used the phrase “ick factor” in any of my three books dealing with the emotion of disgust, or in any articles. I use the term “projective disgust” to characterize the disgust that many people feel when they imagine gay sex acts. What does that term mean, and to whom does it apply? The view I develop, on the basis of recent psychological research, is that projective disgust has its origin in a discomfort with one’s own body and its messier animal aspects, including sexuality, and that, in a defense mechanism, disgust is then projected outward onto vulnerable groups who are characterized as hyperphysical and hypersexual. In this way, the uncomfortable people displace their discomfort onto others, who are then targeted for various forms of social discrimination.
Thus the people to whom the term “projective disgust” applies are the insecure and emotionally stunted people who campaign against equal rights for gays and lesbians, not gays and lesbians themselves.
Huckabee had previously claimed that, hey, it was totally cool for him to say that gay sex had an “ick factor” because other people said it first, including this one lady philosopher, who is famous and stuff. While philosophers have been known to say particularly stupid things (so, FYI, simply citing one of them as a way of defending yourself against charges of bigotry is not generally what I would advocate as Plan A), and while it’s worth wondering how helpful (or, for that matter, respectful to people with developmental disabilities) it is to equate homophobia with being “emotionally stunted,” Nussbaum definitely does not hold the view that Huckabee–very publicly–attributes to her. Her final word, then, is not surprising:
He owes me a public apology.
Breaking: Toronto Pride Drops Censorship!
We wrote previously about Pride Toronto’s foray into political censorship, which resulted in dozens of people withdrawing their support from the official Pride Week events. Today, Pride Toronto officially retracted that position, and is allowing everyone who signs a non-discrimination pledge to participate in the march. It is a good day for Canadian Pride.