Thank you for sharing AAG’s experience, it is a good reminder of how much misinformation is out there, and how we can all do our parts to become informed and share that with our play partners.

I think being polite always trumps being deragatory.
“ho” is never a compliment, an endearmen or a seductive utterance.

Sincerely,
Loving Annie

First of all.. I absolutely agree when you say “women would be better served insisting on respect from the men they interact with daily… ”

… And this applies no matter what rappers do, or what we do, or what record companies do, or what the government does, etc.

But, I think we all will agree that it will be easier for women to insist on respect when the environment (rappers, their songs, media, record companies, and you and I) encourages them and supports them when they insist on that respect.

Thus, I think we need to encourage all parts of society to “lift women up”. And they should do that in the way they talk, act, spend their money, etc.

… Yes, rappers should be free to sing what they want to (within legal limits),
… but record companies should “push” them to create less “demeaning rap”
… and we should buy less of the “demeaning rap” and more of the “lifting-up rap”…

Of course, all of this is just “mumbo jumbo” or “mental masterbation” if we continue buying gangsta rap– thus, encouraging the rappers and media and record companies to keep producing it.

FYI- on Oprah, some of the big name rappers pointed out the “ills of society” (jobs, education, drugs, prejudice, etc) which lead them to the lyrics they create.
… and which must be cured… to eliminate the problems which are the breeding ground for rap lyics.

=====
With regard to “Freedom of speech” … (FYI, I am by no means a scholar in this area, so take my comments only as some fertilizer for your own thoughts).

“Freedom of speech” does not mean that everyone has the right to say whatever they want to say in any situation.
… In the US, the First Amendment to the Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech …”
… But, as you can see, this only says that “Congress shall make no law”. It doesn’t say anything about any other governmental body or any organization.

And as most adults in the U.S. know, it is usually interpreted much broader than it is stated…
… Most any govermental body in the U.S. or virtually any public entity would be hard pressed to pass a law or apply a rule which restricted speech.

There is some very good information about “Freedom of speech” at the following sites:
— The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy which says
… “The topic of free speech is one of the most contentious issues in a liberal society. If liberty of expression is not valued, as has often been the case in human history, there is no problem; freedom of expression is simply curtailed in favor of other competing values. Free speech only becomes a volatile issue when it is highly valued because only then do the limitations placed upon it become controversial. And the first thing to note in any sensible discussion of freedom of speech is that it will be limited because it always takes place within a context of competing values. This is what Stanley Fish means when he says that there is no such thing as free speech.”
… “This entry explores the topic of free speech. It starts with a general discussion of freedom in relation to speech and then moves on to examine one of the first, and best, defenses of free speech, based on the harm principle. This provides a useful starting point for further digressions on the subject. The discussion moves on to an assessment of the argument that speech can be limited because it causes offense rather than direct harm.”

— Wikipedia is a very good starting point, and has many useful links. The article starts with
… “Freedom of speech is the concept of the inherent human right to voice one’s opinion publicly without fear of censorship or punishment. The right is preserved in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is granted formal recognition by the laws of most nations. Nonetheless the degree to which the right is upheld in practice varies greatly from one nation to another. In many nations, particularly those with relatively authoritarian forms of government, overt government censorship is enforced. Censorship has also been claimed to occur in other forms (see propaganda model) and there are different approaches to issues such as hate speech, obscenity, and defamation laws even in countries seen as liberal democracies.”

— The UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights says in its preamble,
“… the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,”

((OK, I admit this isn’t the type of discussion you usually seen in a sex blog, but I do see discussion of freedoms as relevant. I will try to not be so academic in the future.))

I guess I think women would be better served insisting on respect from the men they interact with daily, boyfriends, friends, sons, the guy on the street.

Hey, thanks for putting me in your blogroll and for the email compliment. I’ll be checking you out…