Vox Dei

This is a companion piece to my last entry.

Thomas Aquinas was an interesting guy. He wrote during the eleventh century, a time when not only the ability, but the opportunity, to read or write were still quite rare compared to anything we have known in the past century. Despite this he still managed to pen a vast twenty two volume work, Summa Theologica, exploring his ideas. A lot of his concepts were copied very closely from Aristotle and reinterpreted in theological terms, though I don't think that makes them any less relevant.

Indeed he is frequently regarded as one of the more important Christian philosophers. He was made a saint in 1323, but that's far from where his honor ends. In 1567 the Roman Catholic Church liked him so much that they gave him a fancy title, “Angelic Doctor of the Roman Catholic Church”, which gave his writing a special authority in all matters Roman Catholic.

Central to Aquinas's thought is the notion of rationality. He believed that the architect of the universe was a supremely rational being. As such, the very fabric of the universe, or rather existence itself, was based in rational terms. Thus, Aquinas felt it was up to humans to use the natural light of reason to discover what he called the “Natural Law” and discern between “good” and “evil”.

Now, Atheists have done a lot of work to separate the notions of rationality and theism, even painting theism as inherently irrational, yet despite this you will still find people who believe. Regardless of your perspective on whether or not there is a god, or no god, or thousands of gods who are really just emanations of Brahman, I argue that it is important to consider theological arguments if only because they are still so influential on so many others.

For Aristotle, “the good” was that which all things strive after, for Aquinas, it was slightly different. “Good” is an end, and all things which humans have a natural inclination to are thusly “good”. This desire for the good was one of many natural inclinations people have including a natural drive for intercourse, and the preservation of human life (the two do pair rather well together).

Again, Summa Theologica, is a vast work spanning twenty two volumes, so my distillation of Aquinas is a little simplistic to say the least. However, if we are to conclude that it is rational to treat others fairly, equally, and with a general respect for their inherent dignity as humans, it does seem to apply, in a Thomist sense, that these are more than just “good” ideas. Indeed, while planning this entry I came across Martin Luther King using this exact argument in his famous “Letter From A Birmingham Jail”.

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

This is Article I of the U.N.'s Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in 1948 after WWII. While it was the first document of its nature to gain such global recognition and participation, it wasn't the first time ideas such as these had been put forth. In the late 1700's these very same Enlightement ideals were at heart of both the American and French Revolutions.

“Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good.”

This is Article I of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, which was penned when the rebels in France overthrew King Louis XVI and prepared to recreate their government on just terms.

“Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights.”

This is Article IV.

If we are to accept these as just principles, then we must accept their full consequences. This often stretches further than we would like to imagine. That is the problem of dealing in absolutes like “all human beings”.

This extends naturally to the disabled, and as devotees, if we wish to be treated equally, as every other marginalized and oppressed group does, then we ought to act in accordance with such a maxim. This means taking care to ensure that our actions do not bring harm to the disabled, their families, or anyone else for that matter. I've spent a great deal of time focusing on just this point.

Though such a powerful idea stretches even further.

ENDA is the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. The basic idea is that it will prevent discrimination in hiring and employment for LGBTQ people. It's a fairly basic, even “good”, idea. It is one which, matches quite well with much of what we've already read (providing that we control for the blatant sexism from Aquinas up through the French Revolution) That being said, it has never managed to pass.

In 2010 ENDA looked like it had a chance of finally passing and there was a lot of buzz about it not only in LGBTQ circles, but in the media at large. This cause célèbre was so great that arch conservatives decided the best way to combat the horror of gay, lesbian, bi, and trans* people being able to work without being fired based on their orientation and/or identity was to start lying about it.

One of the more notable efforts came from the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC). This was their take on the issue,

“In the next few weeks, President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, and their homosexual and transgender allies will attempt to ram through the so-called Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).

What you may not know is that ENDA normalizes and provides special federal protection for 30+ bizarre sexual orientations listed by the American Psychiatric Association – the so-called “Dirty 30.” These 30+ fetishes include behaviors that are felonies or misdemeanors in most states.

ENDA’s “Dirty 30” includes such bizarre criminal acts as incest, pedophilia, prostitution, beastiality, and cross-dressing. If we don’t act today, Obama and Pelosi will normalize these disorders by federal law on April 21!

In a moment of candor, liberal Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) openly admitted on the House floor that the “Dirty 30” would be covered by federal law. In fact, he wants the Dirty 30 to be given special protection! In his own words: “all of these philias and fetishes and isms that were put forward--need not live in fear because of who they are.””

Of course none of this was true of ENDA or the American Psychological Association who they slavishly reference. It is worth noting that the TVC has such a strong record of providing blatantly false information as tried and true fact, that they have been listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Of course they habitually maintain that as a matter of faith, and thus, supposedly, natural law, people ought to be allowed to continue biased employment. Puzzling.

This is an explosive issue on its own, but becomes particularly relevant to devotees when we examine the “Dirty 30” that has the TVC in such an uproar.

Here is what their PDF on the so-called “Dirty 30” has to say.

“What Is A ‘Sexual Orientation’?

"Paraphilias"(formerly called sexual deviations) listed in the Diagnostic and

Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision

(Washington: American Psychiatric Association, 2000). This list includes both

paraphilias coded by the APA and paraphilias (not otherwise specified – NOS).

This is not a complete list of paraphilias, but only a sample.* These are deviant

sexual orientations or sexual attractions that are still considered abnormal.

1. Apotemnophilia - sexual arousal associated with the stump(s) of an

amputee ”

Yup, number one on the list is good ol' apotemnophilia. Amp devs. They somehow forgot about abasiophilia, and I'm not sure why. Maybe they thought it would be redundant to list two philias which link sex and disability. Or perhaps they thought it was realistic to expect the “filthiest” of Democrats to support amp devs, but laughable that they would consider anyone else. It doesn't really matter though.

What's happening here is devotees are being used as a pawn by the right to advance their homophobic agendas. What is lost in the fracas over Gay and Trans* rights is how we are being used, framed, defamed, and abused. As the right attempts to pin us to the LGBTQ movement in the hopes that our “dirtiness” would delegitimize them, we are disowned by “normal” society. Following naturally from there, the LGBTQ movement disowns us because we are seen as delegitmizing and in doing so pushes us down as well.

In the end you find both groups arguing, though not so explicitly, that we don't deserve this same protection which everyone else does. This isn't based on any process of rational thought, but rather the mechanisms of politics, power, and popular appeal. Our rights are sacrificed and forgotten, and in doing so they work to betray the universality of human rights that has been proposed for well over two hundred years across the world.

The idea of human rights is that they apply to all humans. The problem with bills like ENDA is one of strategy. It provides but a pinprick in a canopy of oppression. I will concede it is a fitting and necessary pinprick, but still one which accomplishes just an iota of the grand project of human rights.

In the end we will waste more energy by trying to pass legislation which enforces human rights for one group at a time. Why ought we support a bill that does not solve the entire problem, but only a portion of it? Why ought we accept as legitimate governance which does not act in line with the ideals which it claims to uphold? Why would we stand idle in the face of such flagrant hypocrisy?

“...though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal . . ." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime--the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.”
-MLK

Vox Populi

This past week I was happy to discover that a new dev blog had popped up adding another perspective on the dev phenomenon. Normalsane, authored by 'letskeepshitreal' seeks, as practically every devotee writing about devotees has, to correct and clarify the many misconceptions about us. The core message can be succinctly summarized in this quote, “...we're fucking normal.”

With frustrated enthusiasm and brash wit 'letskeepshitreal' sums up what we, and literally every other marginalized group everywhere, have been saying since time immemorial. We deviate yes, but in a harmless way. Everyone says it, and still no one seems to care.

See, the interesting thing about devotees, is that we're indistinguishable from everyone else. We walk among you. You might already know us and have no idea at all. We're your friends, family, co-workers, retail clerks, doctors and lawyers. You can't identify us if you're a Psychiatrist or a Judge, or a cop, or even a person with a disability. There is nothing special about how we look, or walk, or don't walk even (I know of at least one dev with MS). We love and fuck like everyone else, that's why so many marriages last until we decide to do something few people ever truly do, we are honest about ourselves.

However, this doesn't just apply to devotees, it applies to thousands of other marginalized groups. The crux of it is this: If we are to accept that this argument we make on our own behalf is valid, then we must extend that to other groups as well. We're talking about something bigger than just ourselves.

It is not enough that we as devotees argue merely on our own behalf, surely that will never get us anywhere, there simply aren't enough of us to do anything substantial, and more importantly, it represents poor reasoning. You can argue on behalf until you're blue in the face, but it won't matter until you take a step to something larger, and more important.

Devotees are just one subset of a larger oppressed and maligned group. Perverts. We don't hurt other people, we act in line with consent, we love our families, and pay our taxes. It is for this reason that I speak of “coercive devotees”, in order to clarify the weakened or more often absent distinction between devotees who are merely perverts, and those who act like creeps. Those of us who are merely perverted, kinky, exotic, or whatever word you like, all face varying levels of discrimination. Much of what I've written here on the past months can be easily applied to other groups.

We do have our own unique social issues, for instance I have never seen quite as much fuss raised over casters as I have over devs, but the uniting principle among us is one of ostracism, and an imposition to silence. We are told, without explicit instruction, to be quiet or be shunned. The world would prefer to imagine we do not exist, unless it wants to laugh at us, a phenomena I've written about before.

If we as devotees, seek to one day move beyond this, we must work for a more sex and kink positive culture. There is no other option. Working alone as devs is both ignorant and inefficient. As devs we ought to see the common bond we have in other pervs and work to build alliances. This involves encountering our own prejudices and surely is not an easy task, but a necessary one if we desire not only our own liberation, but fair and equal treatment for all.

Devotees & The Disabled: Mutually Oppressed

I went through a long period of my life where I wanted to study the disability rights movement, and the politics surrounding ableism in society, but I felt that as a devotee it was inappropriate. I felt that this was not my, or any devotees place. My thoughts on this have shifted since then.

Currently I believe it is actually beneficial for devotees, the transabled, pretenders, cast fetishists, foot lovers, furverts, Star Wars enthusiasts, and even the disabled to study disability. I believe that there are many barriers we erect without being aware, and this is especially true for devotees.

However, the study of disability by a devotee need neither be one of self flagellation nor of some abstract sexual urge, but rather one of self-advocacy. As some have pointed out, in the West we are held back by an antiquated system of values surrounding sex inherited from the Victorian Era when the act lost its value in pleasure, and instead became one of pure procreation. This system of cultural values is largely what dictates where the devotee finds themselves relative to everyone else.

However, there is something else at work which makes the devotee perceived as more bizarre than say a balloon fetishist or a furry. I believe that in part there is a strain of ableism.

Of course, devotees are no stranger to the fact that there is a stigma surrounding disabled sexuality. Though of course devotees carry their own stigma. In Gendering Disability (which every devotee should read), there is a paper which details the experiences of one researcher who took a serious academic look at devotees. She mostly limited herself to lurking on one board for amputee devs, but what I read was unnerving.

Having grown up a child of the internet generation, I was in many ways raised into sexual maturity amongst a “culture of devoteeism”, as I imagine no person in the history of the world before me has done. I generally thought I had a very good idea of what devotees were like and what they did and did not do, yet what I read here shocked me. I do not mean to downplay the seriousness of issues surrounding the abuse of the disabled by devotees with cameras, but I had honestly suspected that, as far as the internet is concerned, it got no worse than that. I was wrong.

The group observed in this paper was fond of sharing their “sightings”. This refers to sharing stories of something as simple as seeing an amputee in the mall, or a blind person on the sidewalk. While unnerving, this seems to be ultimately harmless enough. However, there is a darker side. These people also felt that there was nothing wrong with posting the time and location of these sightings, along with detailed descriptions of the people they saw.

It is an old and sad truth, which only grows sadder with age, that the disabled are overwhelmingly more likely  to be the victims of sexual assault as compared to the able bodied. When you view the behaviors of these devotees, building the infrastructure for and even tacitly encouraging, stalking, it is easy to understand why we have the reputation we do. What I have read suggests that disabled children comprise the bulk of victims though, so this isn't a phenomenon quite attributable to most devotees.

I believe that devotees are created, not born. As such it becomes important to look at the factors which influence this. The problem we must acknowledge before beginning this is that we do not know why or how devotees are created.

Freud had a theory that as children there are certain moments where their minds become susceptible to influence and whatever they happen to observe they will become fixated on. His reasoning went that because children were often crawling on the floor around the age when this “fixation” happened, that it explained the high prevalence of foot fetishes. More recently the neuro-scientist V.S. Ramachandran, who everyone should know of by now, has made some interesting proposals regarding “neural crosswiring” along the areas of the brain responsible for mapping the body, and the area responsible for sexual function.

I realize that there are a number of theories out there, thus far none of them proven regarding acquisition of paraphilia. However, I feel that it is quite appropriate for us to understand that regardless of how a given paraphilia, in this case devoteeism, is acquired, the world in which the afflicted find themselves has an effect on how they understand themselves, and act.

The dominant stereotypes we hold about the disabled are overwhelmingly negative. These too owe their present manifestations in part to a harmful historical legacy. Things have improved since the Bronze Age when the disabled were not allowed inside Jewish Temples , or the Medieval period when they were dressed up as court jesters and abused for entertainment. Indeed we've come a long way, and yet we still have a long way to go.

The truth of the matter is that human sexuality stretches far beyond our average conception. For example, your grandmother may still masturbate. The disabled are fully sexual beings though this is quite often ignored, or even more absurdly, and harmfully, treated as taboo. 

 This image represents one of the only instances in recent pop-cultural media where the subject of disabled sexuality has been directly addressed. Also, due to reruns and syndication it is one of the most repeated, giving it greater cultural influence than others.

The mechanism through which this occurs is one of imposed silence. It would be political suicide these days for someone to publicly oppose the notion of disabled sexuality, but we have many things to say about that which is done, and less to say about that which is left undone. Ignorance is easier, and harder to detect.

In this way whatever calls to mind a positive association between “disability” and “sexuality” is met with the same, or an even harsher retribution. While things are changing, there is a large part of the world that wants to ignore disabled sexuality. This is where we come in.

In some sense you can argue that the mere existence of devotees naturally works in opposition to this repressive force. The traces we leave behind online, especially in places like YouTube, scatters the notion of disabled sexuality further. We unwittingly carry the message, though rarely in the best of ways.

It broaches the silence imposed on the subject calling it to attention. Now, much can be said for the damage likely caused by someone's first notion of an association between “disability” and “sex” being YouTube slideshow of stolen pictures, though I do hold hope that more positive efforts will counter this. Though devotees wishing to leave behind the shame they often experience for their exotic desire have an imperative to do more than this.

I have heard countless devotees discuss the issue of shame, guilt, and even suicide. I've been there myself, more times than I'd like to recall. If we do wish to one day see a new world where we may live not merely without shame, but perhaps even with pride, if we care not just for ourselves, but for our fellow devotees, and even for those not born yet, then by all means we ought to take an active role in helping create it.

This begins at the personal level. Every devotee must strive to deal with their feelings with integrity. We ought not hurt, nor take advantage of others. As I've said before this means that you can't simply take every picture and video you find. This may not sound like it is the most appealing option, but if you agree that you don't want to hurt those you love, then you won't.

This goes farther than just what you use though. Streetsie is a blog with a lot of devotee content, some of it poorly written and obviously fictional, but still of interest to the well informed dev, however, I don't go there. In addition to all the writing they produce, they have a gallery dedicated to sharing photos. Some of these are fine, but the vast majority are not. I don't give Streetsie my traffic because doing so would be supporting their community of coercive abasiophilia.

While we may work for the creation of a new world through passivity, that is not enough. We can refuse certain material, and ignore certain websites, but this is just a refusal to contribute to their project, and does nothing to stop them. We must do more.

I used to spend a lot of time pontificating to coercive devotees that their behaviors were terrible, immoral, and hurting the disabled as well as themselves, and after months and months of work it barely had an impact. I heard people parroting my arguments from time to time, but it was without sincerity. When I stopped preaching, I stopped hearing my echo.

We can not stop devotees, or anybody for that matter, from acting on impulse ignorance, though that does not mean that we can't work to reduce the incidence of it.

In my experience coercive devotees will rarely listen, though the disabled are another story. I would encourage everyone to do what I do, and take an active role in warning the disabled about coercive devotees. We are still by a large a rare topic of conversation amongst the disabled, and thus there are many who wander the net unaware.

The simplest strategy is, “If you see something, say something.”

Time and again I have seen disabled people on YouTube who unwittingly become the object of dev admiration. Sometimes they realize it, though more often they don't. Here is where you can help. Send them a message. I've sent plenty of these over the years. It doesn't have to be anything dramatic, but explain to them that they might be getting some attention they didn't expect. Let them know what they can do, and how to stay safe in the future. At the end, and this always goes at the end, add something to this effect. “Again, I'm sorry if this has shocked or hurt you in any way, while some devotees do bad things, we're not all bad people.”

It's nice and subtle like that. You are being straight and honest with them by disclosing your status as a devotee (which you ought to do) in a gentle way, while pointing out, with your message as tangible proof, that not all devotees are coercive. Also, it's at the end. You never know what someone's past with devotees may be like. If it's bad, then they might hear devotee and head for the hills. Trust me, always put it at the end.

This part is often controversial enough. I have been on the receiving end of a very harsh stream of devoted vitriol for doing this. To be honest it hurts. I wish we could all get along, especially the small group of people who know what it feels like to live with this condition, but in the end it is worth the effort.

There is one last strategy I would encourage everyone to take up.

It is not merely enough that we warn the disabled as they are violated. It minimizes the amount of harm caused, but we must also invest in more preventative measures. If we can stop the problem before it starts, we can win the game.

I once combed through Google trying to find every Spinal Rehab center I could. Most of them, curiously, did not have any way of being contacted by email. I was too embarrassed to use a phone, but I gathered together about all ten or so I could find that allowed for email contact and sent them a message. I asked that they try to include something in their program which would help their patients understand the importance of privacy settings.

The advent of the information age has had far reaching effects and in many ways society is still learning how to adjust to those changes. In general people have a lack of proper education regarding the internet and digital media. Rehabilitation is the first place to begin explaining to the disabled that it can be wise to act cautiously.

If we act in this way our actions help us two-fold. To begin we work to quash the efforts coercive devotees, stopping their treachery as and before it happens. Further though we work to spread awareness of those devotees opposed to sexual exploitation.