For just one illustration, take a look at how The Daily Beast has reported on the physical and professional demise of Hefner and Weinstein, respectively. They've published many blaring headlines rightfully calling Weinstein a "predator" whose "reign of terror" left countless victims in its wake. As for Hefner, they lauded his "civil rights legacy" and credited him with "bringing sex out of the shadows." The fact that he "brought sex out of the shadows" by objectifying thousands of women, while keeping a harem of teenage girls who performed sexual acts on his elderly, decrepit body because they thought it was the best way to advance their softcore porn careers, is apparently irrelevant.
We seem to have a very confused notion of sexual morality. Mostly because we have no notion of it. We're making it up as we go along. One minute we're calling a creepy 90-year-old man a hero because he coerced a bunch of girls to get naked for him, the next we're crucifying a creepy 65-year-old man because he did something quite similar.
These kinds of glaring inconsistencies are par for the course in our culture. We celebrate the porn industry even as we decry the sex trafficking that fuels it. We mock Mike Pence for respecting boundaries even as we panic over the sexual harassment that Pence's policy is meant to avoid. We encourage guys and girls in college to get together for booze-fueled coed parties even as we wring our hands over the supposed "rape epidemic" these parties cause. None of this makes any sense at all.
Now, I'll be told that one important word separates and distinguishes the acceptable from the unacceptable in the examples listed above: consent. But how so? Even consent is defined haphazardly. Are we supposed to believe that Hefner's concubines had orgies with him because they found his decaying husk irresistible? Are we supposed to believe that the playmates in the magazine had true feelings of joy and personal fulfillment in becoming masturbatory material for millions of lonely men? If so, then I suppose we have to believe that the young Hollywood starlets gave Weinstein naked massages because they were really into it. And if the 19-year-old blonde "consented" to prostituting herself for Hefner, then we must in that case believe that the actresses who slept with Weinstein for film roles did the same.
WALSH: Please Don't Act Shocked And Appalled By Harvey Weinstein If You Celebrated Hugh Hefner
We seem to have a very confused notion of sexual morality. Mostly because we have no notion of it. We're making it up as we go along. One minute we're calling a creepy 90-year-old man a hero because he coerced a bunch of girls to get naked for him, the next we're crucifying a creepy 65-year-old man because he did something quite similar.
These kinds of glaring inconsistencies are par for the course in our culture. We celebrate the porn industry even as we decry the sex trafficking that fuels it. We mock Mike Pence for respecting boundaries even as we panic over the sexual harassment that Pence's policy is meant to avoid. We encourage guys and girls in college to get together for booze-fueled coed parties even as we wring our hands over the supposed "rape epidemic" these parties cause. None of this makes any sense at all.
Now, I'll be told that one important word separates and distinguishes the acceptable from the unacceptable in the examples listed above: consent. But how so? Even consent is defined haphazardly. Are we supposed to believe that Hefner's concubines had orgies with him because they found his decaying husk irresistible? Are we supposed to believe that the playmates in the magazine had true feelings of joy and personal fulfillment in becoming masturbatory material for millions of lonely men? If so, then I suppose we have to believe that the young Hollywood starlets gave Weinstein naked massages because they were really into it. And if the 19-year-old blonde "consented" to prostituting herself for Hefner, then we must in that case believe that the actresses who slept with Weinstein for film roles did the same.
WALSH: Please Don't Act Shocked And Appalled By Harvey Weinstein If You Celebrated Hugh Hefner