Sam Berg, Ren Ev, And The Chickenshit Tactics of a APRF Chickenhawk

Love Me, I'm A Liberal...NOT!!!, The Feminist Sex Wars, The Sex Pox April 17th, 2008

UPDATE #2 (4-20-08): Score one for the good girls; Ren just announced at her blog that Sam Berg has blinked first, and will no longer contest Ren’s appearance in the William & Mary college debate.  In fact, it will be Sam who will drop out….leaving poor John Foubert to be apparantly double-teamed by two very smart, feisty women in Ren and Jill Brenneman. Nice going, Chickenhawk Sam…way to prove everyone right about how much a bully you can be…and how much of a coward you really are when someone you can’t bully around actually calls your bullshit out.  And major props to the organizers of the debate for standing up for real principles of free speech.

UPDATE (4-18-08): One of the organizers of the William & Mary debate posted a comment over at Natalia Antonova’s blog a clarification of Ren Ev’s situation:

[....] I need to point out that Ren was not the only practicing sex worker “invited” to this event. Not by any means. She is, however, unfortunately, the only practicing sex worker who is able to come to Williamsburg, VA on a Monday evening and on our crappy budget to participate in this discussion.

Also…Iamcuriousblue has posted an excellent entry over at the Blog of Pro-Porn Activism on the background behind such censorship efforts, and even includes Witchy-Woo’s attempted smackdown of yours truly as an example of how APRF’s attempt to change the subject and attack the messengers when the message isn’t to their liking.

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Original post:

We all are familiar with the tactics of a “chickenhawk”: very good at attacking without remorse from behind the firewall; but can’t be arsed to defend himself/herself in a fair fight in the open for fear of getting his/her arse royally kicked.

Thing is, it’s not just right-wingers that are prone to such tactics. At least, not the traditional kind.

If you are anywhere near the blogosphere, you are now aware, I assume, of the brohaha involving Renegade Evolution, and her on-again/off again invite to participate in a sex work/porn debate that was scheduled on Monday at William & Mary College. (Ren was supposed to team up with Jill Brenneman of SWOPEast to rumble with Sam Berg of Genderberg.com and male APRF/Bob Jensen wannabe John Foubert, mostly known for his rabid opposition to the Sex Workers’ Art Show as “pornography” and “inducing rape against women”.) It became on because Jill was originally by herself against Sam and Foubert, and sought a companion for balance; and Ren volunteered. It became “off” because Sam lodged a protest against Ren being there, claiming that she wasn’t “comfortable” sharing the same platform as Ren; she directly quoted Ren’s alleged “hatred” of “radical feminists” and cited the now infamous one-year-old quote of Ren allegedly wishing radfems to “fall under a truck and choke on their own blood”.

Of course, the fact that Ren immediately apologized and repudiated that remark; the fact that Sam and her antiporn/anti-prostitution allies have lobbed far worse lobs at Ren and other pro-sex worker allies; and the fact that if anything, Ren should be the one feeling most uncomfortable in the same building as Sam Berg, given the personal threats she has gotten from antiporn/anti-sex work activists (including being called out as a “marketing tool of the male patriarchy”, deserving of being raped and even killed due to her acceptance of her profession and her lifestyle, threatened with being outed to her family and friends, effectively called out as a “cum-dumpster”, “Ms. Plastic Tits”, an “elitist”, and other typical insults)….all of that means nothing to the chickenhawk bully that is Sam Berg.

All that matters is that Sam Berg would have been forced to actually defend her whack ideas against someone who is actually smart enough and experienced enough to dissect and totally rebuke her slanders about sex work…and as we all know, we just can’t have that, can we???

Of course, this is not nearly the first time that APRF activists have attempted to move the goalposts to control the debate through denying their critics access to public venues; indeed, it is standard operational procedure for them to go David Horowitz and make up excuse after excuse to crawfish away from any debate they can’t directly control by slandering and libeling the opposition.

As it stands right now, the organizers of the W&M debate are still attempting to get Sam Berg to reconsider and drop her opposition; and Ren’s invitation still stands for now. A polite email to the organizers wouldn’t hurt Ren’s efforts much….but if the organizers do knuckle under and disinvite Ren, then I fully expect Jill to drop out in solidarity….and the message sent loud and clear that pro-sex feminists and sex workers will NO LONGER be silenced or intimidated EVER AGAIN.

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