A Society of Parents
Friday, March 31, 1995 by Dave Winer.
I was watching CNN late last nite -- their entertainment show -- I guess they thought this was entertaining! Man.
Interview with Senator Exon. We finally see what he looks like. Whitebread midwest republican. A somewhat subdued Bible thumping cornbelt hypocrite.
He says that the Exon amendment, otherwise known as the Communications Decency Act of of 1995, won't effect freedom of expression on the Internet.
OK. Here's your challenge Senator Exon. My website isn't smut. But I am a human being with real feelings. Tell me what's wrong with that. Would you let your kids read this article?
Kids are sexual too 
I remember, as a kid, sneaking into my parents' bedroom to look at my father's stack of Playboys. No, I didn't read the articles.
There was nothing wrong with this, and damn you for implying that there was!
So what if my father didn't want me looking at those magazines? I'm a real person, even at eight years old, and I want to explore an important part of myself. Just because you're scared, or my father is scared, that I might have these feelings. [I remember feeling guilty about this, I was doing something bad, a wound that's still with me.]
It's too bad that at eight, we don't have the words to express our rage at our parents for imposing their values on us so harshly. At 39, I have the words, and I remember how I felt when I was a kid.
So please listen, dammit.
The thing you, and a lot of parents don't get is that from the minute a person is born, they are a person. With a will, rights, and feelings. Anger, sadness, joy, fear and sexual feelings. Too many parents try to see the kid they want to see, a kid with no feelings.
And a lot of parents would like to think that their children are completely asexual. But it's a lie! A big huge one. Ask a psychologist, people are sexual, even in the womb.
A society of parents
There is no such thing as sexual innocence. It's a lie. This lie is responsible for a lot of the sexual dysfunction in our world; and a lot of the hurtful, wounding, painful and violent sex that's out there. This pain ends up getting inflicted on your children! What an awful thing for a society of parents to do!
So, I object not only to the potential censorship that your bill would impose on me, I object to parents trying to filter the material that children can access. You may want to raise your childern in a world where we don't ackowledge all aspects of our humanity, but I don't want to pass that kind of world on to the next generation. I'd like them to be better than us, happier, more satisfied with life, stronger and richer people than we were.
Reality
I am human. My feelings are aroused in a beautiful way when I see a picture of a beautiful woman with no clothes on. If you're a heterosexual man, I bet yours are too!
These images stir my imagination, they bring up feelings that I like, they enrich my life.
Being able to dream about making love to women, in a private way, is part of living. It's an important part of being a man. And an important part of being a boy too.
I am an optimist. I believe the truth is always better than lies. And the truth is that we are all sexual beings. Some of us try to repress that, and others prefer to express them and enjoy them.
Dave Winer
PS: I'm adding a sexuality section to my masthead page. If you have any pointers to sites with great visualizations of sexuality, either written or graphic, please pass them on.
PPS: I'm also adding a Senator Exon section to the masthead page. If you've written something about the Decency Act, please send me a pointer and I'll add it to the page.
PPS: When this appears on my website, it points to a picture of a beautiful woman with no clothes on, so you can see graphically what kind of expression Senator Exon wants us to live without. See the LIBIDO website for more sexual imagery.
