Happy Walpurgisnacht!

Do you believe that the government should stay out of your private sex life? Let me guess… What I love about How Sex Became a Civil Liberty, by Leigh Ann Wheeler, is how she forces us to reexamine our assumptions.

Wheeler, a historian at Binghamton University and the co-editor of the Journal of Women’s History, sets out to unearth the history of a phenomenon most of us probably see as natural—that we possess, in Wheeler’s apt phrase, “sexual civil liberties.”

As a reproductive justice activist in Missouri, I had a lot of “preach, sister!” moments while reading Delirium. I’ve seen the damage wrought from the relentless assault on reproductive rights…the unplanned pregnancies resulting from a lack of comprehensive sex education and access to contraception, the emotional and economic toll taken as women navigate a seemingly endless series of hurdles to access reproductive health care, and the devaluing of pregnant women resulting from legislative attempts to cast them solely as reproductive vessels who forfeit their rights once pregnancy has been confirmed. I’ve also seen the transformative power of activism, particularly in my home state of Missouri where the masses hold far more nuanced views on the politics of sex than those elected to represent us. For every challenge to access to birth control or abortion care, there is a fired up response that gives me hope for the future.

To people here in Missouri, Akin’s comments were not terribly surprising. Akin is a known commodity — known to be highly conservative and well in keeping with a non-trivial slice of the Missouri electorate.

Like Br’er Rabbit telling Br’er Fox not to throw him in the briar patch, Claire McCaskill ran ads on Fox News during the GOP primary fight, calling Akin “too conservative for Missouri”. With an endorsement like that, conservatives in the GOP primary race were happy to hand Akin a victory with 36% of the vote.

I loved the original “Showgirls” for its utter Showgirls-ness delivered by screenwriter Joe Eszterhas and director Paul Verhoeven. The classy nail artistry of the heroine Nomi Malone; “Goddess” star Cristal Connors’ drawling “darlin’ ” and of course the slimy perfidy of casino hotshot Zack Carey with his utterly tacky dolphin fountain swimming pool which was the setting for one of the most ridiculous, and short, sex scenes ever.

But whatever happened to Penny, the naive stripper from Cheetah’s who took Nomi’s spot in valet/dancer Jimmy’s modern dance flop piece “Private Dancer”?

The Khomeinis and Santorums of the world are not just impotent voyeurs. Their odd obsessions advance dangerous, inhuman policies that demean, discriminate and kill.

Exactly how many times can a woman have sex using birth control to prevent pregnancy before she’s a “slut”? I really would like to know after reading this latest defense by Dana Loesch of Rush Limbaugh’s “slut shaming” of 30 year-old woman Sandra Fluke. Fluke testified before Congress that 1) she chooses to use birth control, 2) has sex and doesn’t want a baby now, and 3) noted the expense of birth control can be out of the reach of many women.

Someone actually asked the question that has been on a lot of people’s minds since Newt Gingrich’s second wife, Marianne, spilled the beans that Newt actually asked her about having an open marriage (after boinking his mistress and future wife Callista for years). Marianne didn’t agree, so Newt, who had dogged Bill Clinton about WH blow jobs during the same period the former House Speaker was also receiving extramarital servicing, asked for a divorce.

Is Newt swinging with wife #3?

Up with People was a non-profit corporation, a counter to the counterculture, the voice of Nixon’s Silent Majority and it’s well-publicized busload of kids traveling the world and staying with host families delivered an experiment in a new life style, a freshly scrubbed version of hippies. Whether singing “Freedom Isn’t Free” at a barbed wire Berlin Wall checkpoint, showcasing their talents at Richard Nixon’s Inaugural, or performing in later years before groups of auto workers–who unknowingly would soon be laid off by the tour sponsor General Motors–Up with People was on message for the Establishment, spreading the word that being nice was nice, and the nicer you were to people, the more niceness would spread. And the world would live happily ever after.

Abby Dees isn’t afraid to talk about sex. Or frame questions for you about sex. She, unlike some of our political activists who ask that we downplay our sex, is willing to acknowledge — even celebrate — the role sex plays in sexual orientation. As she writes, “Duh.”