Why are Americans More Afraid of Sex Than Violence?

[McCamy Taylor]

Serious question. Mass shootings have become an almost monthly event in this country. Our "allies" in Russia are torturing gays. Our president select blames the victims of right wing violence. Home grown fascists are becoming increasingly bold---and dangerous---as they follow Trump's cues.

And yet, when a woman reveals that she was the victim of rape, everyone starts focusing on sex. Rape is not about sex. It is about violence. Statutory rape is about an adult forcing his or her will on a vulnerable child. Sexual harassment is about someone in a position of power threatening to do economic harm to someone else. It isn't about the sex. It is about the threat. The humiliation.

If a man forced another man to clean a filthy floor with his tongue in exchange for a job, there would be no sex, but there would still be violence.

Dick picks and dirty jokes and sexual propositions made to adults who are not being coerced--those are not news worthy. And yet, the press salivates over anything that allows it to use the words "breast", "penis", "vagina"--and ignores the suffering, the exploitation, the economic injustice. Worse, the press exploits the victims of violence, turning their tragedy into a peepshow. And meanwhile, the NRA and its stooges in public office get a free pass. Because, apparently, violence is a good old fashioned American value, but sex is scary.

[vlyons]

1. Because of Christianity, especially fundamentalist

For centuries, Christianity taught that Eve was the instigator of sin, tempting Adam to eat that apple. Women were considered empty vessels into which men planted seeds. Failure to produce male babies was always the woman's fault. Plus bloody menstral periods were considered unclean, requiring women to be separated from men until ritually cleansed.

[A HERETIC I AM]

5. Because we are a land of puritanical hypocrites.

[secondwind]

2. Folks in other countries must be laughing at us. Seriously.

We do seem to take things too seriously. Like an ex-comedian still grabbing butts.

[Phil Ossified]

3. Violence IS Sex in America

What happens what you shoot somebody, male or female? Your steel-hard bullet penetrates their body, causing a massive ejaculation of their blood, brain matter, bits of internal organs, etc.

No wonder then, when we see these 2nd-Amendment guys carrying around the biggest guns money can buy, we assume (Who's kidding who? We know!) that they're packing 2 inches MAX in their pants!

[pansypoo53219]

4. ZOMBIE PURITANISM.

yet now th eGOP is pro commie, still anti socialist. go figure.

[Behind the Aegis]

6. It's always been that way.

Look at the rating system for movies and TV and how violence, even graphic and extreme violence, gets a "pass" but sex/sexuality gets dinged as "dangerous". There is a really good documentary about the rating system and it addresses the issues of violence and sex, and how violence gets more of a pass. I wish I could recall the name!

[ProfessorGAC]

7. I Think They Are Simply Fearful

I don't see it as either/or.
Voters like tough talk from politicians too (see Bush, Cheney, "it&quot because they fear terrorism, dark people, images of crime, women who talk back, etc. Geez, people supported the Patriot Act because the so freaked out!
As others have said, the puritanical streak runs deep for the sex thing and the upswing in fundamentalist nonsense amplifies it, but Americans appear to fear both, not one or the other