Posted on 06/24/2005 7:47:21 PM PDT by wagglebee
SAN FRANCISCO — Gay marriage, runaway brides, abortion, sex education and AIDS all have one thing in common, say sexuality researchers.
They're examples of ''moral panics" — a topic that's the focus of an international sexuality conference being held this week at San Francisco State University.
"Moral panics are a kind of sexual scapegoating," said Gilbert Herdt, director of the National Sexuality Resource Center at San Francisco State. "They're collective eruptions of deeply felt emotions such as fear, rage, disgust, loathing, shame."
In the 1980s, homosexuals and hemophiliacs were made into scapegoats for spreading the AIDS virus. Earlier this century, masturbation was the leading moral panic, where a whole industry was built around stopping the practice in youth, Herdt said.
These days, the reigning moral panic is around marriage, and that has everything to do with human rights, health care and the economy, sexuality experts said.
Mass demonstrations in Madrid, Spain, last weekend against a bill to allow gay marriage and adoption is "a clear example of an outcry of moral panic because people are trying to limit the human rights of others," said Niels Teunis, an assistantprofessor in human sexuality at San Francisco State.
Several sessions of the four-day conference, which brings together 250 participants from 32 countries, are about marriage. One talk focuses on "Runaway brides and grooms: The 'crisis' of marriage in the United States."
And researchers will release preliminary findings on the mental health effects of the marriage ban on same-sex couples.
Saskia Wieringa, president of the International Association for the Study of Sexuality, Culture and Society, which convened the conference, said Europeans are struggling with marriage because of an increase in arranged marriages and bride imports from Muslim countries.
This brings up issues of women's rights and the meaning of marriage.
"It is the whole issue of marriage that is the crux of the unease," she said.
Still, the researchers aren't exactly sure why marriage is such a hot-button issue around the world today.
In the United States, numerous studies have shown that married people do better financially and have better health than the unmarried.
As health benefits erode and the middle and lower classes increasingly need a two-income household to survive, marriage has become more of a focus in society, Herdt said.
"Underneath the moral issue of marriage, there's this very real struggle for economic survival," Herdt said.
President Bush has made marriage a central issue of his administration, including calling for programs that encourage heterosexual marriages and a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
Yet others said moral panics such as gay marriage benefit whoever is in power.
"In the latest U.S. presidential election, sexuality was a major, major area of mobilization by the Bush government," Teunis said. "Marriage and abstinence-only education were huge moral issues."
There's a difference between moral outrage and moral panic, Teunis said. Moral outrage over a murder in a community leads to safer streets, for instance, whereas moral panic leads to demonizing and stereotyping.
"Ultimately moral panics disrupt the rule of law and are dangerous to democracy," Herdt said. "This is a message we want to get out there in the public."
They're examples of ''moral panics" — a topic that's the focus of an international sexuality conference being held this week at San Francisco State University.
These aren't "moral panics," they are byproducts of the total absense of morality by the left.
Gee, and I thought it was Ronnie Reagan. 8-0
These aren't "moral panics," they are byproducts of the total absense of morality by the left.
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Of course they are! But the left redefines REALITY to suit their own definitions and excuses for their perverted, miserable existences.....morals? Forgetaboutit!!!
San Francisco is a major embarassment to real Californians.
Take a look at this!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1430265/posts
"Earlier this century, masturbation was the leading moral panic, ..."
Funny, I don't seem to recall spanking the monkey causing a panic way back in 2001 and 2002. Do you?
Gee, where did the AIDS problem start in the USA?
Answer: in the homosexual population of New York City.
On homosexuality, I'm with the Muslims.
The boy you are talking about was Ryan White, he truly was an innocent victim, and UNLIKE the homosexuals, he DID NOT SPREAD AIDS. I don't recall anybody blaming hemophiliacs for AIDS.
Uh, you may want to do a bit of research before you declare your solidarity with the Muslims and their views on homosexuality. Muslim men dig little boys.
Thanks for refreshing my memory on Ryan White wagglebee. I am well aware that hemophiliacs were not spreading AIDS. My point is that they were not and homosexual behavior was. I hope that was clear. Like I said, the writer is trying to lump the two together. Kind of like the way they try to compare the gay rights issue with the Civil Rights struggle of the 60's.
I knew what you meant. Maybe it was just random luck that AIDS first foothold was among the homosexuals, but it was, and that was not their fault. What was their fault was the continuation of behavior that escalated the problem.
There was a time not long ago that they had a great football team, but now I think they just want to be a sex-crazed freakshow.
EXACTLY right wagglebee. It was continued risky behavior coupled with political correctness run amok that helped aids to spread as it did. Funny though, it never became the great plague amongst the heterosexual community the way AIDS activists said it would.
"Maybe it was just random luck that AIDS first foothold was among the homosexuals,"
I don't know. Who else was so promiscuously practicing perversion?
I think you're right. The SF Chronicle is just an advertiser away from becoming one of those free newspapers the porn peddler hand you as you walk down the strip in Las Vegas. Beautiful city, but I have no desire to ever return there.
I said maybe.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Liberals think we're "mentally ill."
Not a wild opinion on your part. Go take a look at any DU thread and this will be confirmed for you. They really do think you are deranged
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