The Naive Slut

I was pleased to find, in one of the later chapters of The Ethical Slut, a ringing endorsement for the libertarian view on marriage – i.e. that the government should butt out of it altogether. Funny how the likelihood of a group taking a laissez-faire stance on any given issue are inversely proportional to the chances of favorable legislation being passed in the near future.

The section was marred, however, by a parenthetical aside praising isolated scions of the Mormon church for continuing the old Mormon polygamous practices. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with Mormonism should know that their idea of polygamy is hardly an exemplary one. The Latter-Day Saints have a history going all the way back to their founder, Joseph Smith, of child marriages, forced marriages, and even of leaders taking the wives of disciples for themselves. Nor are these practices confined to the distant past. Periodically some isolated offshoot of the church makes the news when local law-enforcement cracks down. The case of Elizabeth Smart is a recent prominent example. Mormon polygamy is antithetical to the principles of ethical sluthood. I was surprised that such an uneducated statement made it into the book. It confirms my feeling that, while well-intentioned, it isn’t a very rigorously researched work could have benefited from a better editor.

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2 Comments

  1. I don’t know

    I have to hold the Bill of Rights ever before me as a lense through which to view this kind of thinking, if I’m to find a way to get along with some of these viewpoints.
    I’m just not sure that the ideas in the book, (based on the Amazon reviews) model the human condition accurately.
    I do agree that the government would be well improved by eliminating all discussion of bodily fluids, and what people are doing with them. Collosal distraction. Lately, though, I’ve been given to suspicion that distraction is what da gubmint all about.

  2. I don’t know

    I have to hold the Bill of Rights ever before me as a lense through which to view this kind of thinking, if I’m to find a way to get along with some of these viewpoints.
    I’m just not sure that the ideas in the book, (based on the Amazon reviews) model the human condition accurately.
    I do agree that the government would be well improved by eliminating all discussion of bodily fluids, and what people are doing with them. Collosal distraction. Lately, though, I’ve been given to suspicion that distraction is what da gubmint all about.

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