On slut-shaming and The List

People want to know who is on The List for a number of reasons, the largest of which seems to be because the media has repeatedly told us that it exists and because gossip, when we are absolutely sure it does not pertain to ourselves, is fun. After all, if The List was about every Mainer’s credit card purchases or website visits, the atmosphere might be a little different, but this is about a bunch of dirty people who have sex with hookers, so they deserve being the center of attention, amiright, guys? Nevermind that consensual sex habits that are not our own, like paying for sex for example, are none of our business.

I know, I know. It is our business because it’s illegal, but nothing I have seen to this point has suggested that the desire to see The List comes from an instinct to preserve public integrity outside of implicitly bullying people into adhering to particular norms of sexual behavior. As a friend of mine half-joked regarding the tone of this particular situation, “Errbody getcha tar and feathers, these people ain’t goin ta church!” The flock has strayed, brothers and sisters! Name them, brothers and sisters. We shall make them repent, brothers and sisters.

The spectacle that has developed around the existence of The List is the largest state-wide spectacle of slut shaming I have been privy to in a long time. So far as the press is concerned, Wright is a prostitute but her male pimp is somehow a “business partner.” And the people who paid for sex are fair game for public ridicule why? Because they had sex with a consenting adult in a fashion we fancy ourselves head and shoulders above.

I understand that the illegality of this incident makes publication of these names fair game, but I remain sympathetic to most of the people who are involved. Yes, I know that there is supposedly a television personality on the list, and there are other public officials, but how people engage in sex, so long as it is consenting, remains none of my business. The only instance that will be significant is if members of the political/religious morality police are found on there so that they can ask for forgiveness, go out of vogue for a couple of years, and then reenter the public discourse stronger than ever (no moral crusade worth a damn is complete without a scandal, brothers and sisters). In reality, these names will be released and everybody will talk, and then whether or not they are found guilty of any criminal behavior, damage will be done because taboo and spectacle are held in higher regard than process and fairness.

It is unimaginable that everyone who is so eager to get their hands on The List would care to have their every credit card transaction, their visited website, their every sexual encounter made public to be judged by the self-deputized morality mob. The last thing I care to be judged by, particularly in an arena where context and process will go by the wayside, is public prejudice and prudishness. Sure, The List is going to become public—part of it already has—but we are, devoid of any self-reflection, handling this as if we were torn out of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Eighteenth Century.

Alex Steed

About Alex Steed

Alex Steed has written about and engaged in politics since he was an insufferable teenager. He has run for the Statehouse and produced a successful web series. He now runs a content firm called Knack Factory with two guys who are a lot more talented than himself.