Tolerance And Sexuality: Iceland, WTF?
Last week the Icelandic parliament voted unanimously to legalize gay marriage. As someone who believes in equal freedoms for all people, I completely support this.
Last March that same Icelandic parliament voted to ban any businesses wherein people profit from nudity; the bill was specifically intended to stamp out strip clubs. As someone who funded her college education by working as a stripper, and furthermore would most likely live in abysmal poverty today had I not danced a decade ago, I vociferously opposed this.
I know religious conservatives who want to ban both gay marriage and strip clubs; of course I disagree with them on these issues but at least give them credit for logical consistency: since religious conservatives tend to dislike any forms of non-procreative sexual expression, their opposition to homosexuality and titillating dance performances don’t contradict each other in any way.
But the legislators in Iceland, embracing admirable open-mindedness in some sexual arenas and disturbing control-freak feminism in others, have all the consistency of liquified Jell-O.
Last March that same Icelandic parliament voted to ban any businesses wherein people profit from nudity; the bill was specifically intended to stamp out strip clubs. As someone who funded her college education by working as a stripper, and furthermore would most likely live in abysmal poverty today had I not danced a decade ago, I vociferously opposed this.
I know religious conservatives who want to ban both gay marriage and strip clubs; of course I disagree with them on these issues but at least give them credit for logical consistency: since religious conservatives tend to dislike any forms of non-procreative sexual expression, their opposition to homosexuality and titillating dance performances don’t contradict each other in any way.
But the legislators in Iceland, embracing admirable open-mindedness in some sexual arenas and disturbing control-freak feminism in others, have all the consistency of liquified Jell-O.
posted by Jennifer Abel at 11:20 AM
4 Comments:
What do you expect from legislatures? They test the political winds and determine that more people will like them if the legalize gay marraige and criminalize profiting from nudity.
Caveman, that still doesn't explain the doublethink of the Icelandic population whom the legislators were apparently pandering to.
The common denominator of both is the net reduction of enjoyment of life. No one should smile on that bleak hell of an island, hence these laws increase:
1: the number of men who haven't seen a woman, even an ugly one, naked.
2: the number of old bitter couples in cold, loveless marriages.
This is what happens when nordic goth kids become lawmakers...
I think you're not getting how these demographics were pandered to. The gay marriage thing is easy, a majority of voters think it's ok and a minority would vote against a guy who voted for it. Thus it wins for the politicos.
The pay for nudity thing is differant. A minority, likely the same one who doesn't want gay marraige, doesn't want ANYONE to see ANYONE naked. EVER. Then you have the ones who respond neagatively to the word "profit" which would vote against gay marraige if there was a profit motive behind it. Then you have the sane people who are always a minority in any nation who want gay marriage and to pay people to get naked. Heck, they'd be willing to let gay married people get paid to be naked for anyone gay or strait. But again, a minority.
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