Ugh

This sums up how I feel about this idea of a Lunenburg misogynist posing as a businessman, as I posted on the G&M website:

Aren't there already enough shrines to woman-hating and objectification? With all the outrage that took place over the misogyny club in Dartmouth, why go through with yet another place to treat women as nothing more than sexual objects? This is a disturbing development that benefits nobody other than those men who hate women and feel as though they are entitled to naked women on command. It is both sad and pathetic that this venture is being contemplated, and I hope that the people of Lunenburg oppose it with considerable fury and passion. Women deserve better!

---------

Predictably, my post attracted responses from those charging me with hating sex and implying that I should just lighten up, ignore it, and forget that real women's lives are being put in jeopardy when they are forced into the prostitution business. Because, hey, putting my head in the sand and pretending something doesn't exist has always worked well before! Sadly, that's not true. I also had someone tell me that I didn't have the right to push my morality on people, which is funny because I never said anything about morality, and last I read the Charter of Rights, I do have the right to express an opinion. Oh yeah, and there was the guy who said that if had a better body he would totally choose to become a male stripper. Oy. Sometimes it's almost not worth trying to get through to the ignorant. Anyways, this is what I said in my response to the responses (still awaiting to be posted on the site by the G&M's folks):

[Responding first to a fellow who said I must have aced Feminism 101. I've taken many university courses, but sadly] I've never taken a feminism class in my life. I've read a lot of literature on the subject, though, and I find women's efforts to be treated as equal human beings deserving of our unmitigated support, not snide, glib comments from those who don't understand what feminism is really all about.
Also, Mr. Jones, notice that at no time in my post did I mention the word "morals." That's something you chose to do all on your own in a typical attempt to shout down someone who disagrees with your perspective. However, since you brought it up, your relativist position of "dont go to, work at, or support them in any way. and thats all you have a right to do" not only puts women's lives in danger by not taking a stand against their exploitation by pimps and others who would harm them, but it's also blatantly false. I have a right to express my opinion, particularly on a subject that involves the basic human security rights of "life, liberty, and security of the person" for a segment of our society that men prey upon, use, abuse, manipulate, and ultimately destroy. This isn't like a video game or a terrible television show, these are actual living, breathing human lives being jeopardized, and you want to sit here and proselytize to me about what my rights are in a discussion forum? Talk about having your priorities out of order!
Moreover, your idealized concept of having a choice as to whether or not to degrade yourself is far divorced from the reality for far too women who are forced into prostitution. Since strippers and their prostituted colleagues don't walk around with stamps on their heads saying whether or not they chose their profession, it is overwhelmingly likely that they did not choose that life with legitimate alternatives. For many, it is either strip or die. That is not a choice. The great majority of strippers would enjoy the luxury you have expressed here, because I can assure that [presented with true options] most women who strip would choose otherwise.

-----

Then I ran out of space for my comment. It's distressing for me, the blithe ignorance that I always encounter when I venture a feminist opinion in a public forum. It's to be expected that there will always be men who seek to preserve their precious pornstitution institutions, either through relativist acquiescence or outright defense of the indefensible. I think that may well be what I find most distressing: that I expect men to take a position that doesn't embrace women as equals and flippantly dismisses anyone who says that they should be equals. I don't expect everybody to agree with everything I say (that is a bridge far, far too far), but the vociferous opposition to something that, to me, seems like common sense and decency is stunning. And sad.

I hope that the folks in Lunenberg stand against this concept and stand hard against it. Not the phony, NIMBY-based, pseudo-argument used by some when Sensations opened up in Dartmouth, but a real opposition that says, "Not in my backyard, not in my town, you will not use our daughters." Get to it, Lunenbergians (Lunenbergites?)!!!