#puritanism

[anaphoraholic]

found this on reddit thought id post it here too 👍

[misscromwellsmonocle]

Art in the Age of Digital Puritanism (2022) by Iness Rychlik The artist reposted it in 2024 "because it feels relevant in social media today".

[leikeliscomet]

'But asexuals are so harmless why would she come after them/us?' I mean apart from the fact trans people, intersex people and people of colour aren't harmful either and oppression isn't because a group deserved it and marginalised people don't need to be morally pure to not be discriminated against, no asexuality isn't harmless in conservatives' eyes. In an ideology where cis heterosexual marriage and sex for reproduction is seen as mandatory you having little to no sexual attraction ruins the whole set up. You can't 'be fruitful and multiply' in the way god intended. You have a nonsexuality that isn't being forced onto you by them. You're not repressing your desire in the name of god because you barely have any. You have control over your own body and you aren't supposed to do that. You're spitting in the face of conservative sexual and gender roles just by existing. Spit harder!

Unofficial part 2

[fucktoyfelix]

This is actually a useful thing to understand how to spell out. What exactly is wrong with puritanical attitudes towards sexuality? TW: Discusses body image issues, suicide, STIs, sexual assault etc

1. It fosters fear, disgust and loathing of our bodies. By hiding the human body as soon as we are born, and treating it as an object of inherent shame: THAT creates trauma. Shame is one of the primary sources of trauma, its the fuel and lets trauma burn. Those raised in nudist societies, and children raised in households where nudity is treated in a neutral and non-sexual tend to have a much more positive relationship with their bodies as adults. This makes complete sense when you think about it. Going through puberty not knowing if your body is "normal" terrifies children in ways that stick with them for life. In fact, most cultures outside of the Unites States aren't as strange about non-sexual nudity actually...and are healthier for it. We can't have body positivity as long as we are literally criminalized for having an uncovered body. 2. It creates fear, shame and disgust about sex. Most people have sex at some point in their lives. No one would be here at all without it. Most people have sexual desires which lie outside their control. When people are ashamed of those desires, it leads to self hatred, and depression and anxiety. This shame is just as traumatic as bodily shame. When sex is normalized, and treated with the same candor as any other hobby: it becomes less apt to traumatize people.

3. Puritanical attitudes towards sex limit sex education. When people are too ashamed to talk about sex, people don't learn about pregnancy, stis, or consent. All of these things can and do kill people when they aren't addressed with an open dialogue.

Sexual shame leads to people too ashamed to buy condoms, to talk to their doctor about birth control, to ask their partner to use protection, to get tested...the negative health impacts of sexual puritanism have a massive negative effect on society.

4. Sexual shame leads to poorer communication in relationships. Ohh if I had a dime for every person i knew who ruined their relationship because they felt too guilty to talk to their partner about their sexual feelings...Not just that, but the general body shame that comes with puritanism blocks people from connecting to one another too. Have you ever avoided getting close to someone because you were ashamed of your body? If not, I guarantee you know someone who has.

5. Misogyny! Puritanical sexual believes hold that women are not capable of sexual agency. That only men should initiate sex. That women should only ever want babies and not pleasure from sex. All of this rolls right into the next one:

6. Victim blaming in sexual assault. When women are the gatekeepers of sex, its easy to blame them when they 'fail' to protect their chastity when someone violates their trust. This isn't something that just effects women: as the same attitudes hold that men are not capable of experiencing sexual assault. The lack of education and discussion about sex in a sex-negative world inherently prevent the open dialogues necessary for creating and maintaining consent culture.

7. Suppression and marginalization of the queer community. If we're too ashamed to talk about sex, we'll be too ashamed to talk about sexuality. Puritans can't accept any deviation from gender norms either. Anything other than sex between a cis man and a cis woman for the purpose of making a baby is a deviant kink, a mental illness, and needs to be wiped out. Its important to point out that many queer people hold puritanical values about sex: believing that they can achieve sex negativity and queer liberation at the same time. However, sex negative movements always rise with censorship and discrimination of queer people...because queer people are inherently considered deviant by the vast majority of sex negative "allies". It's very dangerous to forget this.

8. Censorship of art. Who decides what is sexual and what is not? Its easy to agree that sex needs to be hidden...but it never takes long before the definition of what is "sexual" expands. Even women's breasts are considered sexual in the United States. Its so normal for Americans to think of them that way that women can't feed their children in public. Drag queens face violence for reading at libraries. Books get taken off the shelves. Artists are bullied offline.

9. Censorship of scientific exploration. Scientific research into reproductive health, sexual behavior, gender identity and more are often hindered due to the "moral objections" of puritans, delaying progress and understanding. That's just off the top of my head. I think its time for people to take how problematic 'puritanism' is more seriously. As we see fascism rear its ugly head all over the world, we're going to see a lot more talk about 'degenerates'...and we know where that kind of talk leads.

[animentality]

[roomwithavoid]

when people hear about disordered people who don’t have empathy, and they clutch pearls about “how could you possibly be a good person without empathy” and demonize like “there’s just NOTHING stopping them from hurting people!” it sounds literally EXACTLY the same as when christians say “well if you don’t believe in the ten commandments what’s stopping you from killing and raping everyone”

[nemfrog]

The evils of the dance. 1850.

Internet Archive

[creature-wizard]

"It's weird to be interested in X thing if you don't believe in it" is an expression of anti-intellectualism, whether you realize it or not.

It is important that people are interested in things they don't believe in, actually. I don't believe in conspiracy theories, but I am interested in the way they arise from people's anxieties and the way they impact society. Also, without this interest, I couldn't be out here educating people on the conspiracy theories used by the far right so they can recognize them for what they are when they come across them.

I don't believe in Christianity, but I am extremely interested in how the religion developed and shaped politics and societies throughout the years. This also empowers me to use actual facts to explain why Christianity isn't actually self-evidently correct in the way many believers claim instead of relying on conspiracy theories and unsubstantiated claims made up by some guy in the 19th century.

A strong belief that people shouldn't be interested in things they don't believe in is also a kind of puritanism. It begins with the belief that good people should believe in X, and if they believe in X, then they should have no interest in Y, because if they have an interest in Y then they don't really believe in X and they aren't good people.

Puritanism and anti-intellectualism go hand-in-hand, remember that.