I would like to tackle an issue that has been on my mind for a long time. That is the demonization and dehumanization of sex offenders.
In America at least, being charged of a sex crime is one of the worst things that can happen to a person. It gives them what is known in Russia as “the wolf's ticket” - a designation that bars them from just about anything. The person gets treated as less than human. A person who has committed a theft or a manslaughter re-enters society after serving the prison sentence. Whereas these people are barred from society even after serving their prison sentence. This is not how constitutional law is meant to work.
Am I in favor of sex offenses? No, but I am also not in favor of demonization and witch hunts. And this is what we see here. The major claim about these people is that they can only be bad and that they will keep re-offending. That denies these people the most basic humanity. Anything human is capable of choice. Anything capable of choice is capable of changing their behavior. That a man gets bad urges does not mean that he is doomed to acting on bad urges all his life. He can simply tell himself no.
The way in which these people are regarded and defined denies them this basic fact – fact of choice. It is claimed that they will never stop offending. That is irrational, that is dehumanizing, and that is cruel. Once again, anything human is capable of choice. And that means also the sex offenders.
So I want greater scrutiny over such practices and over such beliefs. We are dealing here with demonization and dehumanization. Neither of the above are meant to happen in the free world. And it is wrong that this be happening in the name of feminism or in the name of anything else.