So, in my first lecture I spent a lot of time talking about Haidt’s 5 moral foundations, focusing especially on the “Purity” foundation, as having a great deal to do with the politicization of sex and gender.
The idea with the moral foundation is that we’re born with a packet of moral potential, and it’s structured into these 5 different categories. One of them is “purity,” the notion that the body is a temple which can be desecrated by immoral activities and contaminants. It’s assessed with survey items like:
When you decide whether something is right or wrong, to what extent are the following considerations relevant to your thinking?
and
How strongly do you agree or disagree?
And generally speaking, liberal-identified people rate these items very low while conservative-identified people rate these items very high.
Except when it comes to sex. Apart from issues related to sexual orientation, liberals and conservatives aren’t very different in their moral assessment of sexuality, like if you tell someone these scenarios:
A 34-year-old woman enjoys masturbating while cuddling with her favorite teddy bear.
Or
A 25-year-old man likes to masturbate while his dog willingly licks his owner’s genitals and seems to enjoy it.
And you ask them how they feel about it, how they’d feel if this person invited them over for dinner, or how they’d feel if they saw a photograph of it, political affiliation does not predict how people respond.
It also doesn’t predict whether or why they say it’s “okay or not okay.” Liberals and conservatives are just as likely to use “ethics of divinity,” a moral code about appropriate uses of the body.
I taught all that on Wednesday, and then THIS came across my screen:
A Make Girl Scouts Clean Again facebook page!
CLEAN!!
For those who lives in ditches, girl scouts recently admitted a transgender girl (born male, has identified as a girl since the age of 2) who wanted to be a girl scout. (In fact, she hasn’t joined – yet – because her mom would like an apology, due to the fact that the first person she asked called her kid “it.” Which is more evidence that the characteristics of a group do not necessarily predict the characteristics of the INDIVIDUALS in that group.)
This makes the Girl Scouts “dirty,” according to some Jesus-wielding, gender-terrorizing fuckwits.
(Not that I judge…)
Anyway, the language choice of “clean” is just such a crystal clear example of the ways the moral foundation of purity is applied in political issues related to sex and gender.
Me?I bought two boxes of Thin Mints and a box of Somoas yesterday. Delicious, dirty cookies.
Also, we use PP info. for sex ed. Which means we support abortion and are dragging our members there to make sure everyone has one. And we support independence. I’ve been called a lesbian feminist abortionist (which is not altogether wrong, but the tone totally gets me) trying to brainwash young innocent children into lesbian feminism abortionism. You can’t make this stuff up!
I’m pretty sure that the increase of hormones in milk is a liberal plot to make menarche happen earlier, so girls can start having sex, getting pregnant, and then having abortions earlier and earlier. I blame you personally for that.
)
Well, they do put milk in many Girl Scout cookies, and definitely s’mores (not to mention, we serve milk at camp), so you’re probably right. Glad I’m making a difference!
Thanks Emily – I posted on their FB page, and on mine to try to get them bombed with pro child sentiments . Disgusting they come out and say they will delete hater comments when they’re bullying a child.
report that Facebook page for hate speech based on gender and orientation. click the “report to facebook” square before you click continue
The current Five Foundations (Harm/Care, Fairness/Reciprocity, Ingroup/Loyalty, Authority/Respect, and Purity/Sanctity) don’t adequately account for libertarians. Therefore, Haidt is planning to add a sixth dimension to the Moral Foundations Theory: Liberty.
“…Haidt and his colleagues eventually recognized that their Moral Foundations Questionnaire was blinkered by liberal academic bias by failing to include a sixth moral foundation, Liberty. They developed a liberty scale to probe this moral dimension. (Sample values: People who are successful in business have a right to enjoy their wealth as they see fit; Everyone should be free to do as they choose, as long as they don’t infringe upon the equal freedom of others.) And guess what? The researchers found that libertarians dramatically outscored liberals and conservatives when it came to putting a high value on both economic and lifestyle liberty. Most dishearteningly, liberals scored two full standard deviations below libertarians on economic liberty.
Based on this values data, Haidt and his colleagues conclude, “Libertarians may fear that the moral concerns typically endorsed by liberals or conservatives are claims that can be used to trample upon individual rights—libertarians’ sacred value. Clearly, libertarians are not amoral. Rather, standard morality scales do a poor job of measuring their one central and overriding moral commitment.”
http://reason.com/archives/2010/11/02/the-science-of-libertarian
And, as a low-disgust, liberty loving libertarian, I raise a box of samoas in solidarity. *clink*
Good for you! Normally I buy at least a case of Thin Mints (though I guess I’ve been good because I still have a few boxes from last year). There are three guys in the office selling cookies this year, and after placing a small order with one of them, I thought to check with my husband. “We like the Girl Scouts, right? They aren’t as judgmental as the Boy Scouts?” And then my husband showed me an infographic that shows how the Girl Scouts support Planned Parenthood and the like. So I bought a bunch more from the other two guys. The infographic was intended to dissuade people from buying the cookies, but I just felt like I should order more, even if I won’t eat them all.
If you want to but more cookies than you want to eat, check if the troop you’re ordering from has a donation option. A lot of troops/councils these days have ways you can but a box of cookies for folks serving in the military overseas, or to a local food bank.
BTW, buying cookies benefits the troop, council (state/regional level), and national org, which I think is a good thing because the organization does a lot of good national-level work. You can also offer to donate cash to your troop or council.
My three daughters, my wife, and I are all proud members of the Girl Scouts. My wide has been a troop leader, the girls have learned important life skills, and I help out with driving and power tools.
I can attest to how dirty Girl Scouts can get, especially after a couple days in the woods.
Thin Mints rock, but I eat way too many.
Pingback: I Have A Suggestion Or Two – Bondage Blog
Aah, individual liberty, Yankee-style – fine if you’ve already got it, and a pile o’ money too, dam’ difficult to get otherwise. Quite how such a fixed notion of individual rights so thoroughly grounded in foundational notions of private property took root in the USA, a country built on stealing land from aboriginal peoples, is a thorough-going mystery. Oh, wait, no it’s not, because libertarians are hypocritical, ignorant and selfish.