Comments on: Do “Adult Businesses” increase local crime rates and ruin property values?

By: Stephanie Z

Stephanie Z — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:00:25 +0000

So the presence of criminals in any industry is a reason to shut down the entire industry?

By: m Andrea

m Andrea — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 14:31:26 +0000

No shyte sherlock. That’s kinda the entire point, once someone realizes that the presence of a slave trader is a human rights issue.

By: Stephanie Z

Stephanie Z — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 03:54:10 +0000

Greg, I don’t know that we’re talking past each other. I strongly suspect that she’s conflating all sex-related businesses.

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 01:29:13 +0000

I thought a “sex shop” was a place where you buy things … porn, various equipment, etc. … not sex. I think at sex shop where women or girls were tied to a bed for being raped would be called something else. In other words, I sense a certain amount of talking past each other here, at least when speaking of a thing called a “sex shop.”

By: Stephanie Z

Stephanie Z — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 23:48:16 +0000

Fascinating assumptions you’ve got going on, by the way, that porn is something in which men look at women. That’s not how mine works.

By: Stephanie Z

Stephanie Z — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 23:01:39 +0000

The blog post to which Greg linked makes no statements about whether property values are affected by “sex shops.” Nor does it reframe “the issue,” whatever you might think the issue is. It spends two paragraphs explaining the legal situation that makes property values relevant to the degree to which the location of sex-related businesses can legally be restricted. Then it summarizes a study on the evidence usually presented by those who argue for strong restrictions, which finds that the strength of that evidence is generally misrepresented.

The idea that sexual speech is somehow inherently harmful (leaving aside the already-illegal situations you presented) is what’s irrelevant to today’s legal situation. That’s already been decided by the courts. That you feel it should have been decided differently is a distraction from a discussion of the legal evidence that is currently allowed to affect these decisions.

Not only are you trying to tell me what I need to write instead of what I did (I’m pretty sure you can do that on your blog if you’d like), but you also didn’t/don’t have a clue what I actually wrote. Can you think of a good reason I wouldn’t get annoyed at you misrepresenting my writing?

By: m Andrea

m Andrea — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 22:45:23 +0000

Yanno, it’s the same as asserting an argument which states “property values are not affected by the presence of slave traders so therefore it’s acceptable for a neighborhood to have slave traders”.

It’s just a roundabout way of protecting racism without making the goal obvious… Thanks for making me think about it more, Stephanie!

By: m Andrea

m Andrea — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 22:29:46 +0000

Would you like to my latest favorite quote? It’s by Susan Brownmiller:

“Perpetuation of the concept that the â??powerful male impulseâ?? must be satisfied with immediacy by a cooperative class of women, set aside and expressly licensed for this purpose, is part and parcel of the mass psychology of rape.”

It’s quite nice! 🙂

By: m Andrea

m Andrea — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 22:23:01 +0000

The “article” assumes that property values are not affected by sex shops. I’m merely pointing out how illogical that statement is, and noticing the reframing. Nothing more, and yet my comment upsets you… kinda strange, frankly.

By: Stephanie Z

Stephanie Z — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 06:27:06 +0000

m Andrea, way to make it clear that you didn’t read the post linked…or even absorb the topic of this post. The issues of property values and crime are precisely the argument, in this case, the legal argument for marginalizing accepted First Amendment rights. You might wish that the argument were something else, but it isn’t, not in council meetings and courtrooms.

You’re welcome to make your argument and to try to make it strong enough to justify a restriction of rights. You might be better off doing it in a legal setting rather than a tangentially related blog post, however.