My Open Letter In Response To Cheryl Lynn Seelhoff’s (aka Heart(less)) Open Letter

Asshattery, Stop Reading Your Fax, Fool!!, The Feminist Sex Wars, The Sex Pox, The War on Sex/Sluts/Gays/Whatever November 17th, 2008

(OK..so it was only Heart(less) who offered her open letter towards “pro-porn, pro-prostitution, antifeminist, male-centered misogynists”, and mostly it was targeted towards women whom they disagree with, like Ren Ev and Hexy…but since I tend to be one of their biggest targets anyway for being all of the latter (although I will argue the “antifeminist” and “misogynist” part, I most definitely am mostly pro-porn and pro-prostitiution…and you can’t get more “male-centered” than being an actual man), I will assume that her rant has the approval of all of the GenderBorg hive mind and address them in toto.)

To Ms. Seelhoff, Samantha M. Berg (aka Locutus of GenderBorg…errrrr, Genderberg), Sis (formerly known as Pony), Gayle, Stormcloud (formerly of the Academy of Bees and Wasps), Satsuma (of the Radical Lesbian Womyn’s Ministry of the Faith), and all other charter members of the AntiPornography/AntiProstitution RadicalFeminist Caucus Against The Male Erect Penis:


I was so deeply, deeply touched by your latest righteous (as in Far Righteous) volley of resistance that you posted today; in pretty much the same way that I was touched deeply yesterday when i found out that a small cockroach had gotten lodged in my left ear and had to be irrigated out. (True story. VERY TRUE STORY.) I mean, the response I had reading your short but very potent prose, Ms. Seelhoff, was about the same as the dizziness and near fainting spells that I was suffering from these last few days from the critter in my ear blocking all the draining points and causing me to lose my sense of balance. The only difference, though, was that unlike my experience with the roach, my response to you was also tainted by fits of laughter. As in: “Are you freakin’ KIDDING ME?!?!?! ROTF, LMAO!!!!! “

Since it is so short and sweet, allow me the privilege to reprint it here:

This open letter will be very short.

I won’t be silenced. I will continue to vocally and outspokenly oppose pornography, prostitution, sex trafficking, the enslavement of women, male dominance, white male heterosupremacy, and all brutality towards women throughout the world. There is nothing anyone can do, in the end, to silence me, to discredit me, or ultimately, to stop me. (Besides taking me out, of course. That’s been tried before, a number of times. And, here I still am.)

Just sayin’.

Such wonderful, thoughtful words of resistance, I’d say.

To which, I have a comment of two.

Now, you say that certain bloggers are so out to get you as to “silence” you, “discredit” you, and ultimately to “stop” you from delivering your potent message of liberation for women against the harms of enslavement of women, “male dominance”, “brutality towards woman” and “white male heterosupremacy”…and the (according to you) decisive link of pornography and prostitution in promoting all of these harms.

All fine and good in and of itself, Ms. Seelhoff…but ultimately, the proof is in the pudding, as the saying goes. Just for my sake, can you please give out some examples of where anyone that you proclaim to be your mortal enemy in your crusade have even attempted to “silence” you or “stop” you from your campaign??

I’m not talking about those who use their own blogs and their own venues and who post to open blogs and other venues to defend themselves and their positions and to criticize what they see as the fatal flaws in your position, Ms. Seelhoff, and that of your radicalfeminist allies…though perhaps the idea that critique is not the same as censorship and posting ideas on their own space is not exactly the same as denying other people their spaces to vent their views, might be a bit confusing to you. No, I am talking directly about direct attempts by such “pro-porn, pro-prostitution, antifeminist misogynists” to publically shame and harrass and ultimately silence your opinions and beliefs.

I’ll give you some time to think and search for the answer to my questions.

In the meantime, I will give some examples of the opposite being true, where real live “pro-porn/pro-prostitution” male-supporting “misogynists” (otherwise known in the real world as “critics of antiporn/anti-prostitution ‘feminism’”) have been faced in real life with not only attempts at silence, but far more personal attacks.

– Barry, the past owner of Alas, a Blog, was targeted by a group of radicalfeminists (led by someone named…what?? Heart??) when he refused to cede their demands to offer a free space at his blog to them to vent at will. Then, later, when he sold his domain name to another person, who promptly used it to run a portal to various porn pay sites, the same group of radicalfeminists practically lynched him as a rapist and a pornographer himself. (UPDATE 11-18-08: Clarification courtesy of Belledame: it was actually Heart working solo; and she was abusing his offer to guest blog. The “Alas, a Porn Portal” thingie happened months later, and then Heart attacked from outside, not inside. Thanks to Belle for the correction.)

– Laura, who was a decisively anti-porn feminist activist herself, was nevertheless drubbed out of blogging when she made the fatal error of appearing in a thread over at Renegade Evolution’s old blog; it was that apostatic moment that inspired Stormcloud to post her “bees and wasps” manifesto. (The same classic essay also took umbrage at various “pro-porn” women including “Am-butt” (Amber Rhea), “Retrograde Evolution”, “Belledodo” (Belledame of Fetch Me My Axe), for not following antiporn feminist orthodoxy.)

– Then there is “The Other Miriam”…the woman who has been falsely accused and convicted of being the person who infiltrated the firewall of Sam Berg’s Genderberg forum and lifting a quote that reduced Renegade Evolution to a “marketing ploy” by male pornographers. Although “The Other Miriam” has since that time revealed herself and has stenuously denied that she was indeed the one, and that she was only a go-between who only joined the Genderberg forums out of sheer interest; nevertheless, it was Sam Berg herself who, when she couldn’t prove that Ren herself was behind the breach of Genderberg’s firewall, laid all the blame on “The Other Miriam”, even going as far as to threaten her personally.

– Then there is Maxine Doogan, pro-sex worker activist, who was physically threatened when she attempted to speak at an antiprostitution seminar at the University of California at Berkeley.

– And I need not count the various threats that Renegade Evolution herself has had to endure from the hands of the “antipornfeminists”; everything from personal taunts at her age and appearance (Sis/Pony, Ginmar) to being threatened with having her personal and professional private live outed to intimate friends (Stormcloud), to being taunted for losing her volunteer job at a battered women’s shelter due to her chosen profession (Witchy-Woo), to an unsuccessful attempt to remove her from a panel discussion on porn and sex work at William and Mary College…amongst others.

Those are the few that I can actually remember…..I’m sure that there were several other cases.

But even with all that, there is also the hypocrisy, Ms. Seelhoff, of you talking about being “silenced”. Interesting, for a woman whose own blog has been well known for not allowing contrarian views to even be heard without severe moderation or modification of their posts to fit your ideological positions. That is, when they are even allowed to be moderated to begin with; recently, certain posters have been even banished (through auto-delete) from even having their posts seen; though you still retain the right to post answers and rejoinders to them as if they were published.

Just as interesting, Ms. Seelhoff, is the notion of those so against you being so “sick” as to oppose you because of your tireless and selfless activism on behalf of those women who cannot speak for themselves. Which hasn;t prevented you or any of your allies from claiming to speak for women who are more than capable of speaking for and representing themselves…especially when they attempt to disagree with your ideology. To give an example, from one of your earlier diatribes, as relayed by Satsuma):

“As I said before, women who so passionately defend this trash are highly likely to have been the victims as children of childhood sexual abuse themselves. Millions of women have suffered this evil as children at the hands of male relatives and close family members, and they are actually never treated or given the help they need to recover from this. The weirdness of women getting into all of this evil I believe is directly connected to women as girls being seasoned and abused. Oftentimes this is so traulmatic, that the girls don’t “remember” consciously the abuse at all. But it is “remembered” in their bodies and in cellular memory, and I believe when women feel drawn to be in porn, or to do burlesque or to promote this degrading S & M underworld, well, they have already been programmed.”

Of course, there are many women who either defend sexually explicit media or who perform in it who are NOT victims of past child abuse (and even if they were, it was still their decision as adults whether or not to enter the sex media or sex performer arena)..but those women tend to be absent from your shaded analysis.

But then again, perhaps your beliefs are based on more fundamental brands of “sickness”….again, quoting Satsuma:

”Even some lesbians I know have told me that being in relationships with women who were once with men was a contaminated sexual experience as well, because they had learned the bad habits of men unnknowingly. If this subtle difference can be discerned, then just think of the horrors out there in the pornification and prostitution of the world.”

In short: male sexuality in and of itself is contaminating and destructive of female sexuality. If you happen to agree with that sentiment, then who’s really the “sick” one???

None of this open letter will more than likely prevent you from continuing to use your space to sell your ideas….and I don’t really think that that is the motive with my or any other person’s criticism of you or your allies, anyway. All of us believe in the power of more speech rather than less; and having faced real censorship all our lives, we no more would want to suppress your right to believe as you do than we would have someone else belittle our rights to do the same.

On the other hand, though…just as you insist on your right to call our side out on our mistakes and our flaws; we too reserve our own rights to thorough and open critique of your ideas, especially when they so profoundly lie and distort our spoken words, our deeds, and our actions. Just as we do not challenge your right to control your space or your blog as you choose, as much as we may despise your methods at selective and preemptive censorship, we assume upon ourselves the same right to control our own spaces and seek out new open and public spaces to promote our views. The difference, though, is that we are not so afraid of public criticism that we need to hide behind a firewall or build a moat of censorship or only allow likeminded people to share their views; our biases are open, clear, and accessible to all to see. We don’t have any intentions of stopping you from anything, Ms. Seelhoff; I would think that you would give us the same privilege and credit.

You will still be here….and so will we. Just accept it and agree to disagree…or not. See if we care.

As you said…just sayin’.


Yours Sincerely,
Anthony J. Kennerson
(Pro-Sex Male Leftist/Pro-Pornstitution Feminist Supporter/Ren Ev’s Official Pimp (Uhhh, not really on the third…)


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