It does help actually, to post the whole context of Hank Green supporting sex workers
Raise your hand if you’re just incredibly fucking tired of people taking things the Green Brothers say out of context to make fun of some of the straight white dudes that use that privilege to their advantage to help marginilized people.
The Green brothers speak out about racial injustice, financial inequality, homophobia, housing issues (including homelessness), mental illness (ESPECIALLY John, who has gone through intense depression and anxiety in the past), and many other topics.
They provide dozens of free resources for students online, specifically Crash Course, and every year during the holidays they donate thousands of dollars to multiple charities.
They actively acknowledge their privilege and use it to lift other people up and provide resources for those who don’t have the same privilege.
I’m sure many people don’t know this, but John and Hank CREATED VidCon. They’re the reason VidCon exists today. They were some of the ORIGINAL YouTubers, and they’re one of the only platforms on YouTube that has stayed true to their original content idea.
People LOVE to hate on them. They love it. John was sent so many death threats and harassed so much that he gave up all social media but YouTube for a long time. The reason? People claimed he was glorifying cancer (which if you’ve actually READ the book, he doesn’t) and that he was a “pervert” for writing about high schoolers (as if LITERALLY every single book about a high schooler isn’t written by someone older than 18 I mean Jesus Christ people). Hes spoken on this a couple times but stopped because people just ignored him and dragged his name through the gutters.
The hate on Hank is, from what I’ve seen, fairly recent - he was kind of the forgotten brother for a while. Until he published a book where the main character was bisexual. And he said positive things about trans people. And then suddenly “Hank Green is just a dumb man and his opinions are trash.” Almost like people didn’t like that the “science man” was openly supportive of homosexuality
The Green brothers acknowledge when they get things wrong. They speak out on injustice, on inequality, and they always, ALWAYS try to do what’s right. They are some of the most wholesome straight white men I’ve ever come across in life in general, and it infuriates me that people reduce them to “okay? okay” and “oh didnt he do Crash Course?”
And now hank green is the honorary father of gen z and science tiktok
on this blog we respect the green brothers
Somewhere along the line some people saw ‘people with more privilege in certain areas are less likely to be as aware of their advantages because they are not forced to be aware of the issues constantly’, and somehow read it as ‘if someone ticks enough Privilege Boxes then they’re a Bad Person by default and I’m allowed to bully them’, and those people are a blight on the community.
Love bombing is not a euphemism for “too much affection too soon,” or “high desire for contact.”
“Love bombing” is a term originally used in the context of cults to describe a deliberate and coordinated recruitment method that involved feigning friendship and interest in a potential recruit, via flattery, flirtation, physical affection, and very directed positive attention to everything the recruit says in order to lure them into the cult.
Since cults and abusive relationships operate in similar ways and use similar tactics, love bombing in an interpersonal relationship looks like manufacturing closeness in order to trap someone into a relationship in which the abuser has all the control.
And I know these days there’s a million bullshit junky articles out there that make you think this is a symptom of cluster b personality disorders, but there is no way for you to be love bombing somebody without realizing it.
If you are an affectionate person and the level of affection and attention you give makes someone uncomfortable, you are not “accidentally” abusing them.
If you are uncomfortable with the level of affection and attention someone is paying you, they are not de facto abusing you.
Love bombing is about using someone’s desire for human connection to fast track them into a situation you control and will feel disinclined to leave.
I think “sex is just another activity you can do with a person” arose as a response to the conservative christian “sex is the most Sacred Important Thing Ever and you HAVE to do it Correctly and only Within Marriage or it’s The Most Damaging Sinful Thing That Tarnishes You Eternally.” Which definitely needed to be criticized.
however when I see it expressed as like “sex isn’t a special activity or inherently different than other things” I think. Well it is though?
I mean that being allowed into the intimate boundaries of another person’s body inherently has more responsibilities (making sure the other person feels safe, caring about their comfort and pleasure, communicating clearly) than like…going on a walk in the park with that person
Which really just more starkly highlights how twisted purity culture is? “Sex is an activity with special significance” should mean, “If you are being really intimate with someone and you don’t care about their pleasure and wellbeing and listen to their wants and needs, you could really, REALLY hurt them,” not “If you have sex with anyone except the single person you’ve gotten married to and are committed to for the rest of your life, gross fungus literally grows on your soul.”
Definitely good points!
I will add that for me personally the “sex is just another activity you can do with a person” mentality was useful not only because it pushed back against purity culture, but also against the opposing idea of “sex is what all the cool kids are doing, and you’re not a complete person or a proper adult if you haven’t done it by a certain age (also you’re probably repressed and conservative.)”
Which admittedly might not have the same insidious history as purity culture, but is still legitimately damaging in its own right and a significant part of what led to me having sexual encounters I didn’t particularly enjoy with people I wasn’t really compatible with in any way (and which, as it turned out, didn’t actually result in me becoming cooler or more worldly-wise or really any different from the person I was before, any more than idk eating calamari for the first time did.)
So “sex is just a Thing You Can Do (but which you have every right to decline at any time for any reason)” would have been a much more helpful framing for me, which is why I’m reluctant to let go of it altogether even though I agree it definitely doesn’t tell the whole story. I don’t think it’s an inherently bad groundwork to start from, but it needs additional clarification and commentary.
always thought that it was crazy other folks with adhd couldn’t focus on podcasts when i was totally immune from that issue
then quarantine happened, i stopped driving long distances every day, and you will never fucking believe what I learned I can’t do
Wait. Do people just sit down and have a podcast without any other sides, like it’s a full meal? Podcast is something you ADD to other activity. That’s like eating a bowl of cilantro and going “mmm yummy salad”
I was about to say the only time I was ever capable of putting a podcast on when I was just sitting down to dinner and paying attention to it was when there were new Wooden Overcoats episodes coming out, but even then I was eating at the time. So.
i love you friendship i love you deep platonic bonds i love you random spontaneous bits i love you silly times with friends i love you genuine care and support i love you relationships built on bits that became genuine love for one another i love you support and encouragement for one another i love you friends i love you friends
when we talk about killing Cringe Culture that includes harmless Weird Fetishes too. if you rag on people who are into like feet or vore or inflation or whatever and make a whole big thing of yelling about how cursed it is thats super lame of you and i wish you the courage to Grow Up
FAQ for people who will choose to misinterpret this post:
no, this is not about pedophilia or whatever awful thing you want to accuse me of supporting
no, i am not saying you have to enjoy these things. i am saying we shouldnt shame other people for enjoying them
no, i am not saying its ok for people to deliberately expose or involve others in their sexual interests without consent
yes, i am calling you a big baby if you make a show of acting like weird fetishes are soooo cursed bleach my eyes kill it with fire etc. googoogaga Grow Up
Once in college, I had a classmate trying to tell me that being gay was unnatural, so I pointed out all the ways that queerness shows up in nature, but then he moved the goalpost to “yeah, but humans are held to a higher standard than animals, so we should be above base natural instincts.” He then tried badgering me into going to his church. This was in the same class where I had to argue against the “born this way” concept of queer origin, because too many of my classmates saw it as a disease that could be cured. If there was a cause, then there could be a solution. (And also because the professor theorized that male queerness was caused by a lack of testosterone, a claim that is so wildly false in so many ways that even at 18 I could see right through it.)
My point is, when they say we’re “unnatural,” they mean “freakish.” They don’t actually care about nature.