In favour of the social permissibility of licentiousness
And also of the legalization of all drugs for use and sale by consenting adults.
A participant in one of the rap-nerd fora I’m in on Facebook recently approvingly quoted the legendary rap star Cee-Lo of Goodie Mob condemning the popular female rappers Cardi B, Nicki Minaj, and Megan Thee Stallion for promoting “immorality” in their admittedly very sexually explicit music. Here’s what I said in response:
“First of all, Cee-Lo’s a rapist, so fuck him, despite his being a staggeringly talented top 25 rap legend of all time. Second of all, I think these women have the right to do whatever they feel like doing with their bodies and in their music, even though I don’t particularly care for any of the three of them beyond a few songs here and there. I think the feminists are correct that we should be much more judgemental of the patriarchal society we live in than we should of those women who take the opportunities they are afforded to experience some measure of freedom and liberation through sex!
Chastity, celibacy, abstinence, quote-unquote “sexual purity”, and related ideals are perfectly good and reasonable, but they should be conscious choices made by individuals, rather than necessarily being the kind of thing we judge other people for not choosing. I feel the same way about licentiousness and sexual permissiveness! I myself am very abstemious in this way and don’t really ever have sex unless I’m deeply in love, so I have very little interest in salacious music, although I admit that “Wet-Ass Pussy” by Cardi & Megan is a banger, and so are filthy songs like “Period (We Live)” by City Girls, “Sugar (Gimme Some)” by Trick Daddy, “B R Right” by Trina & Ludacris, “Pussy Whipped” by II Nazty, “Rodeo” by Method Man & Ludacris, “What’s Your Fantasy” by Luda & Shawnna, and others. (The Trick Daddy song is notable for featuring Cee-Lo, which kind of makes a mockery of his whole argument!)
But I still think people who judge female entertainers for making this kind of choice are fundamentally misdiagnosing what is at issue. As long as everything is consensual and there is no abuse or manipulation involved, I think that the sexual revolution is basically good, and that we can’t or shouldn’t equate sexual permissiveness with a lack of morality.
I spend a lot of time talking to Christians who strongly believe that society should move in the direction of promoting chastity, and I have no problem with that as an ideal! Besides which my own religion, the Bahá’í Faith, promotes spotless premarital sexual chastity! I am not arguing against a modest sexual ethic! As I’ve said, I personally follow one!
Rather, I am arguing in favour of the social permissibility of people doing whatever they want with their bodies, including straight men, straight women, gay men, lesbian women, trans people, nonbinary people, and anyone else. I think we should be building a society in which people feel free to make these kinds of choices for themselves. This would extend to the legalization and regulation of sex work, which I think the Left is right to regard as a valid form of work for which there should be workplace protections.
And in terms of the impact of this kind of thing on children, I don’t think there are as many dangers as many conservatives think there are. Children need to be raised to understand that no sex act is permissible without consent, and kids should not be encouraged to have sex, but unless minors (not consenting adults) are involved, once they’ve reached the age of consent, everything else is or should be fair game. Most sex acts should be permissible between consenting adults.
This is a big part of what I believe in general, even though, as I’ve said, I find in-your-face salaciousness a little bit distasteful myself. Just because it ain’t my particular flavour doesn’t mean there’s anything meaningfully wrong with it. By the same token, I think all drugs should be legal for consenting adults to use and sell, even cocaine and heroin, because we will do much less harm by allowing these things to be legal than we currently do my prosecuting the foolish and immoral drug war. I’m not talking about what society should encourage, necessarily, but what it should permit. There are a few areas, such as gun rights and corporate spending, where I think restrictions on freedom make sense. Sex, drugs, and speech are three areas where I think the law should permit more or less the maximum amount of freedom. That’s why I support these three women despite not especially caring for most of their music. Also, “Be Careful” by Cardi B, which has very little to do with sex, is one of the great rap songs. That’s just a fact. There it is.”