Busted Site Clutches the Pearls

The anti-equality frigid set over at newsbusters.org and breitbart.com has decided to increase their hits by allowing their followers to "protest too much" in reaction to a story that ran recently at GoodHousekeeping.com and, subsequently, many sister publications. The Newsbusters intern Erin Aitcheson picked on Cosmo, which was probably deliberate, even though a simple search would have revealed the many other publications running the article. Then breitbart.com's Kipp Jones subsequently did the same, ironically practicing journalistic incest. It's crap, hence the dung beetle pic.  Let's look at busters first...

First, the headline was "Cosmo Praises Incest, Infidelity, and Possible Child Rape."


Where exactly does the original article praise anything? It documents. More importantly, they try to poison the well by, instead of being honest that the article focused on Genetic Sexual Attraction (which is NOT a synonym for incest), dragging in infidelity and child rape. The headline wasn't enough, so the opening line reinforces their attack...

Incest, infidelity, and possibly even child rape all amount to a healthy, healing, and loving relationship by Cosmo’s standards.

Again, where did Cosmo say that?

In a recent twitter post, the “women’s bible” hyped an article normalizing not just sex between a half brother/half sister couple, as well as cheating and sex involving a 14-year-old girl and “her much-older lover.”

"Normalizing?" I have news for them... GSA is a normal, natural reaction to the circumstances.

Disgusting and disturbing don’t even begin to describe the off-the-chart filth that is just another day at Cosmo.

The writer wants you to know she doesn't like the thought of these other people having sex. She wants to make that clear. Did you get that? It's disgusting. And it is so disgusting, we're going to write about it so that all of our "disgusted" readers will flock to the article. It doesn't interest any of them one bit. Nope. Not a bit.

In what universe does “undeniable connection” of half siblings having carnal sex get associated with falling in love?

Why don't we ask Abraham?

You can probably guess how the story plays out in the article: half-siblings discover each other, they form an emotional and sexual connection neither has ever felt before, and decide it’s their destiny to live happily ever after.

Yes, isn't it awful? They should instead stick to other people, who, I'm sure, would be happy to be with someone who is secretly wanting to be with someone else. Or we could support adults in their decisions to be together and everyone will be better off.

Sounds like a Lifetime movie. Except happily ever after in this incest relationship has a lot of unhappiness along the way.

So let's pile on to the unhappiness by telling them they can't love each other and attacking them! What a great thing to do, right?

The sibling lovers share more than DNA, as both had families that they wrecked by their infidelities and desires to act on their alleged genetic sexual attraction. The article reads:

Two weeks after they met, Brian left his wife. "Melissa wasn't the reason I left, but she was the catalyst. My marriage had been over for a while, I just didn't know how to get out of it." He hasn't told his ex — or his mother and siblings — about the sexual part of his relationship with Melissa, but his grown-up daughter from another marriage knows. His daughter "gets that I'm weird," Brian says, describing himself as artistic. She was initially shocked, but "as she thought about it, she knows that my sister can heal me in ways that other people can't," Brian says. "She's on board."
Melissa hasn't told her family either. She still lives with her two teenage daughters and her husband, who she calls "an open-minded guy," adding that in nearly two decades together she's been in multiple other relationships. "He's allowed it because he knows who I am and my upbringing." They haven't been intimate in five or six years, but are committed to co-parenting.
Even though her kids don't know everything, they're aware she has some sort of relationship with Brian, who they've met once. She sleeps over at his house every Saturday. "They're not dumb, and obviously, that's going to look weird," she admits. The girls are angry or upset when she returns. "My daughters view him as an infiltrator, as some guy who fell from the sky, and made their mother go nuts and be gone all the time," Melissa says. "There's a lot of animosity in my house. I'm living a double life."

So Brian's marriage was already over. Melissa has been keeping her kids' home together. But let's bash them anyway, right?

But scarring your children, cheating on your spouse, and getting a divorce are all mere details because “their sexual and emotional connection is exceptional” and “it’s more than romance: Their relationship covers all the forms of love the ancient Greeks espoused — friendship, sex, siblinghood, and self-sacrifice.”

What scars children is when their parents are attacked for simply loving other adults. And of course these reactionaries automatically consider sex with anyone but your one-and-only spouse (who must a man if you're a woman and a woman if you're a man) to be "cheating" no matter what agreements have been negotiated. And did they really bash divorce while apparently criticizing the woman for NOT getting a divorce? And how many of the people in this organization have been divorced?

In hyping incest, the article also managed to gloss over what appeared to be child rape. The article detailed the woman’s fairly tragic upbringing noting that at the age of 14 “her much-older lover was allowed to move in for a time too. There were no boundaries, she says of her mother[.]” A 14-year old with a live-in, much-older lover and no boundaries is enough to make a sane person’s head spin.
How much older is “much-older” beyond 14? Cosmo didn’t say.

While this blog does no advocate lowering the age of consent, I want to ask how old these people think Mary and Joseph were? But where does Cosmo endorse this? It doesn't. Is Cosmo never supposed to mention child rape exists? But let's grant that it was "child rape." Is the writer asserting that as women who were abused as children should never be allowed to make decisions about their own relationships and sexuality as adults? Don't be fooled. If the article had featured a woman who'd never had sex until she married at age 22, it would still bash her for speaking up about her GSA. And there are many people who experience GSA and go on to have consanguinamorous relationships who were never abused.

Cosmo further highlighted the affection of the kindred lovers. “We have an innate trust and no boundaries because we're family. My brother is never going to hurt me.”

How dare they! How dare Cosmo let adults speak honestly about their love?!?

This is incest, an illegal act in all 50 states and punishable as a felony in the state in which this very story is taking place.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. She didn't even do basic research. This is legal in at least three states and there's no good reason it should be illegal in any state. I wonder what the writer would say to cousin couples?

She doesn't miss an opportunity to "blame teh gays" even though human sexuality has been diverse for all of human history.

I guarantee there are devout followers of Newsbusters and probably someone on staff who have experienced GSA. Is it better they be beaten into the closet?

Since the writer is an intern, I'll assume she's young and offer her some advice: Fighting against consenting adults loving each other is a waste of your time and energy. Every dollar or minute you spend doing that is money or time you could have spent fighting abuse. We will reach full marriage equality. The sooner you stop perpetrating bigotry, the better off you'll be.

Here's the breitbart.com coverage, which repeats many of the mistakes of the piece prompting it.

Both pieces garnered many comments, of course, and some of the people expressing bigoted hate probably have hypocritically fapped in the last week to porn featuring twin sisters or a mother and daughter double-team. Some throw in the word "pedophilia" even though it is not an element in this story at all.

As with the articles, none of the comments I saw after the busted piece gave one single reason why these adults should be denied their rights. Jumping up and down, and calling it disgusting are not arguments.

Here's a comment that was left by friend, but was deleted...

(1st off, my comment addresses the incest, not the implication of child rape) Those of you who are commenting with rudeness, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Just because you do not understand it does not make it wrong. You are another being on this planet, not the ruler of it. Do not judge someone just because they sin differently than you. Welcome to the world, it must be a hell of an eye opener for some of you to realize incest is still alive in the world. The reason why everyone is just now hearing about it is because society has made those in those types of relationships terrified to be themselves and share their story. Think for a moment how this earth has evolved. Now, people of all different sexes, races, religions, genders, etc., can get married. Back in the old days incest was promoted to keep blood lines pure. Incest is all the rage in porn. Incest is on a hit TV show Game of Thrones. You really were so naive to believe consensual incest was not in the world? I'm sorry it is a shock to you all, but come on, keep your hatred and rudeness to yourself. You opinions, while valued, are your own. Please share your opinion, because again it is valued, all I ask is that you share your opinion with decency and respect for your fellow people who inhabit this earth with you. In my opinion, and in the opinion of the children I raise, people should be allowed to love and be with whomever they chose and you should not judge or hate anyone. If you do not understand this, then I accept that. But do research to aid in your ignorance, don't smear the hate, that is a result of fear, in comments. I have so much more I could say but I will just leave it as it is, me asking you all to be decent people.

Well, there you have it. I wonder what people could accomplish if they weren't so busy attacking other adults about their love lives? I have to wonder why they focused on Cosmo and not Good Housekeeping? Are they regular Cosmo readers?

For the record, the woman in the article says the sexual relationship she had as a 15-year-old was consensual, with a 21-year-old. I know that can't be considered legally consensual, the abuse she suffered refers to something else, not that relationship. I don't think the coverage makes that clear.