Jezebel jezsplains to rape survivor Elizabeth Smart
Lauren Evans at Jezebel looks down at Elizabeth Smart from an immense height in order to sneer at her for pointing out that her kidnapper-rapist’s consumption of porn made her living hell even worse.
Elizabeth Smart’s abduction from her Salt Lake City bedroom in 2002 will go down in history as the realization of every American’s darkest nightmare. Now, at age 28, a healthy and happy Smart recalls the locus of at least some of her misery: Her captor’s obsession with porn.
The above video was posted on Friday by the anti-porn group Fight the New Drug. Whether porn is systematically destroying the moral fabric of America is a conversation for a different day, but one thing is certain: Hearing Smart talk about her hellish ordeal is every bit as bone-chilling now as it was 14 years ago.
But Smart didn’t say “porn is systematically destroying the moral fabric of America” or anything like it. She talked about her rapist and how he behaved. I can’t imagine why Lauren Evans felt the need to sneer at Elizabeth Smart in that way…or how she managed to go ahead and do it without wanting to vomit all over her keyboard.
God I hate libertarian “feminism.”
Ophelia, I think the paraphrase was meant to be of claims made by Fight the New Drug, not Smart. Reading the whole piece, the alleged sneering at Smart is invisible to me.
The first few comments in the thread are all “you just need to look at the right porn” and other mind-boggling statements; then further down, commenters start sharing their negative experiences and views that indeed porn causes harm. I stopped reading there.
The author tries hard to say she isn’t criticising Smart: but that “porn is systematically destroying America” jab IS a sneer at her.
I dunno, my take is that indeed it’s aimed at the anti-porn group, but in context it is a completely unnecessary comment that hits Smart regardless of its actual target.
I can’t see the sneering in the article. She seems to be trying to tell the reader that regardless of what one thinks of porn generally, this is worth listening to. We later hear that Smart is leading a productive life s an anti-porn campaigner. I don’t know what the author thinks about porn but the whole tone gives the impression that she’s dubious about it and reluctant to say so.
I agree the bit about destroying the moral fabric of America is silly. I think it’s an attempt to sound urbane.
No it isn’t. it’s a perfectly good question, as well asked today as in the future. I don’t know why the author gets to make the schedule of what questions are asked when.
Well, although I say it’s a perfectly good question, I realise that it is not. If ever there were a question guilty of begging itself, this is it. I just meant that for a journalist to put off important issues like this for “a different day” is infuriating. If you’re going to mention it at all, write about it. It’s kind of your job. It’s a hugely important issue, treated by the author with contempt.
The sentence is clearly a dig. i don’t think it matters whether it was aimed at Smart or not; whether the damage is direct or collateral probably doesn’t make much difference. I’m sure that many people reading this piece will file it away as “bitch blames porn for her abduction and months of rape” with an easy morph into “bitch blames porn for ALL abduction and rape.” I mean, come on, we can already see much of that in the comments there.
I have only recently and reluctantly begun to take an anti-porn stance. I won’t go into my personal beliefs on this here because it’s complicated and uninteresting. My point is that one day I suddenly asked myself why I was reluctant in coming to the conclusion that I did. My understanding of the inertia that was gripping me helped me to escape it and I’m a lot less confused now than I was before.
Smart has also made the point that her indoctrination in Purity Culture and Abstinence Only ‘education’ helped keep her in bondage. She was expressly taught that she had lost her value as a human being along with her virginity. Its as bad as Sharia laws whereby a rape victim is automatically guilty of Zina, but only if they seek justice.
But do we have an nationwide, well-funded, religiously entangled movement against Purity and Abstinence? I haven’t checked Jezebel yet, I usually find something to cringe at every time so I’m not going to assume any taste or sense on their part.