Liv-Bug

i love this copy pasta so much

As they attacked commercial sex, Americans developed a strong sense of what I term sexual exceptionalism, that is, the belief that American national character was rooted in–and visible through–their superior sexual morality of the people and their government. The term links the ideology of American exceptionalism to the concept of “sex exceptionalism,” that is, that American culture, as well as law, have treated sex as essentially and categorically distinct from other aspects of human life. Its proponents articulated American sexual exceptionalism through multiple idioms, including the racial language of Anglo-Saxon bloodlines, medical discourses about low rates of venereal disease, religious claims about Protestant Christian sexual reserve, and political arguments about the sexual self-control necessary for democratic self-governance. Debates over prostitution and trafficking buttressed broader national narratives about American exceptionalism. As David Bell notes, “political narratives about America’s exceptional character served to justify various projects of national aggression against both Native and foreign peoples, but they also highlighted what Americans saw as their best qualities and their moral duties, giving them a standard to live up to.” Reforming prostitution policy at home and abroad were thus two sides of the same coin.