Journal 81 Riled Up

Hello! How was your week?

My week was a little tough. My partner and I fought a bit. But it’s a familiar thing we argue about. We don’t have a lot of free time, and there are a lot of things we want to get done. The frustrating part is that we agree on everything that needs to get done, and want to support each other’s plans. The problem is that we disagree on how to use the time.

The anti-art laws have been really riling me up lately. I want to share why I am speaking out so honestly and passionately about them:

About five years ago, I was growing uncomfortable with the concept of gender ideology. I avoided the subject, because I thought that if I ignored it, I wouldn’t have to deal with it. But it came for me at a poignant time, and I was forced to deal with it.

I would get lost in thought for hours contemplating the topic of “sex changes.” I wondered if I was crazy or wrong for not wanting to have a male with me in a dressing room. I didn’t know if anyone else felt this way. Would I just have to accept it? What would happen if got into an accident, went to the hospital, and didn’t know if the nurse was really female or not? Could I ever trust if a woman was really a woman ever again? If I had a son or a daughter, how could they go through life in this environment? How would we even use a public restroom?

My showers were very long as I thought about these things. The “transgender rights” movement started to affect the way I lived my life. My family couldn’t go on long day trips to cute towns anymore because I didn’t feel safe in public bathrooms. We had to do our grocery shopping in a hurry. One day I had to go to New York City on a hot August day, and nearly fainted from dehydration, because I limited my fluid intake. I had two hours of transportation back to the suburbs of New Jersey, and I only drank water when I was closer to home.

I found out that a lot of other people felt this way. A lot of women were having problems much worse than me. Getting cancelled, fired from work, slandered, threatened, and scarily even facing violent physical interactions. Women and girls felt unsafe nearly everywhere in the world in regards to “transgender rights.” I wrote for children’s, women’s, and lesbians’ rights and I am happy that I did instead of just waiting for others to fix it.

So when I heard about these “anti child pornography” laws, the same alarm bells started ringing in my head. Who defines what is “child pornography”? How can you restrict the First Amendment? Why is it okay to ban fictional drawings, but not other forms of fiction? Why is this disproportionately affecting women?

This global wave against artists has the same tactics that came with gender ideology: Claiming to safeguarding children. Easy to support; just nod your head. If you don’t agree, you will get slandered and called derogatory terms. Strategic global implementation. Faux grassroots movement. Industries would stand to benefit.

Furthermore, they don’t make sense. How can you criminalize fiction? How can you bind artists’ hands? What times are we living in? This is like digital-age book-burning. It is incomprehensible to think what classic, beloved, and popular books, comics, and art would now be considered “child pedophilia.” For example, those cute vintage pictures of little boys and girls kissing. I see at least one in every older lady’s home. Are they pedophiles?

I worry that these “anti-child pedophilia” laws in the form of anti-art and anti-free speech laws will backfire. I fear that they will trivialize the topic of child predation. They take the attention, conversation, and resources away from real crime. These laws immediately sound like a good idea, but the negative repercussions could actually harm children and teens.

While well-connected and wealthy men get away with crimes, artists are being terrorized.

Asya Carrino