The right to get freaky
This is strange, disturbing, and darkly amusing.
Disturbing the Peace: On the inalienable right to "excessively noisy sex"
"This case sheds harsh light not only on the Victorian-style petty prudishness of Britain’s rulers, who seriously believe they can make sexually expressive women timid again by dragging them to court, but on the tyranny of anti-social behavior orders themselves, which were introduced by our authoritarian Labour government in 1998. Anyone can apply for an ASBO to stop anyone else from doing something they find irritating, “alarming,” or “threatening.”
Local magistrates’ courts issue the orders, sometimes on the basis of hearsay evidence (which is permissible in ASBO cases). In short, the applicant for an ASBO does not have to go through the normal rigors of the criminal justice system to get a civil ruling preventing someone he doesn’t like from doing something he finds “alarming” or “dangerous.” Once you have been branded with an ASBO, if you break its conditions-by having noisy sex in your own home, for example-you are potentially guilty of a crime and can be imprisoned."
Can we issue injunctions on these grounds against people who walk down the street while ugly? What about people who reveal their poor dental hygiene when they speak? Half of Britain would have to be locked up (if rumours be true).
Not that I never find it annoying and occasionally a bit gross when my neighbor's bedding activities announce themselves through the walls, but really, it's none of my damn business, and who am I to begrudge other peoples' enjoying themselves?
The comparisons to 1984 are indeed frightening.
"In Orwell’s dystopia, “the sexual act, successfully performed, was rebellion.” So it is in Wearside in 2009, where the excessively noisy exploits of Cartwright and her possibly very talented partner are a form of rebellion against the arbitrary and interventionist nature of the ASBO-wielding authorities. They are screwing for liberty."
Best closing line ever. :-P