Turns Out Sandra ‘Slut’ Fluke Isn’t A Friend Of Free Speech

Sandra Fluke, the Georgetown University Law Center student who was unfairly — and repeatedly — excoriated by Rush Limbaugh as a “slut” for advocating that contraception be routinely included in healthcare coverage isn’t a friend of free speech, it turns out.

In the New York Sunday Times Magazine, she makes several statements that suggest that, while she disagrees with what Limbaugh says, she certainly won’t defend his right to say it (as Evelyn Beatrice Hall once suggested Voltaire might).

In fact, she says she regards unpopular speech as “problematic” and not worthy of protection by the federal government, at least when the feds take the form of the FCC — the agency that’s charged (officially, at least) with the preservation free speech on the radio.

In her interview with Andrew Goldman, she says:

... there are distinctions between one’s ability to express an opinion versus one’s ability to use F.C.C.-regulated airwaves to do so, and also one’s ability to engage in speech versus one’s ability to engage in slander.

I do think there’s a serious problem with the violence we see in some pornography, and it has severe consequences for sexual-assault rates.

… it’s really important that we address homophobic statements regardless of whether it’s couched in humor or in serious political conversations. They’re damaging and hurtful, and they make problematic speech acceptable.

First, let’s give Fluke the benefit of the doubt. The Times has a history of misquoting people in its Sunday Mag interview slot, so who knows what Fluke’s true sentiments are.

Having said that, Fluke — who is 30 and therefore does not get an undergraduate pass — should know better.

Taking her points in order:

She volunteered to testify before Congress on the issue of contraception, and in so doing made herself a public figure. True, she didn’t choose to get verbally crucified by Limbaugh, but when you’re trying to change national policy you don’t get to pick and choose your critics.

And public figures — like Fluke — enjoy little protection from slander/libel laws because U.S. defamation law encourages robust political debate at the expense of protecting the reputation of activists who engage in politics. So the “distinction” about slander she’s making is slim to none.

Pornography has never been more available or more widely viewed, thanks to the internet. Ninety percent of men look at it, and 90 percent of women lie about looking at it. (Hello to all the women reading 50 Shades of Grey on their Kindles!). Yet we live in an era that has historically low levels of violence, toward women or otherwise. (Here’s the test: If you live in a neighborhood where you feel OK listening to your iPod/iPhone when you walk home alone, then “sexual assault rates” aren’t really your biggest problem.)

The problem with phrases like “problematic speech” is that the very basis of free speech is society’s willingness to tolerate it, no matter how “problematic” it is.

You can’t pick and choose what speech is “acceptable” or not. Limbaugh’s argument was ugly and sexist, but all he did was say it.
In the interview, Fluke says she grew up in a conservative Christian household and came to feminism late, after taking a women’s studies class at college that she thought she’d disagree with.

Conservative Christians are, bar Muslims, arguably the most censorious, anti-free speech community in America. So let’s hope Fluke continues to stray even further, intellectually, from her roots

source