I've seen a lot on people in twitter discussing wether people should do "kinks"(?) in pride because they might scar the children for life and other arguments. Also calling people like the youtuber Big Joel pedos for thinking this is not a huge deal.
What happened? Maybe this is an american thing but since when have kids been brought to pride?
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Of course nudity isn't always sexual, but we're talking about kink, the entire discourse of this is around sexuality and displaying it.
And at the end of the day, if you're being sexual with people who don't want it, you are violating their consent. It doesn't matter if you can say "Well not all nudity is sexual based" if it's obvious to anyone with half a thought that you intended yours to be now. No one would accept that BS excuse for anything else, why should I accept it now as one?
Now honestly I don't think the problem is even that relevant for pride to begin with, Cishet society (especially cishet men) are basically sexual harassment and consent ignoring machines and pride marches are 95% just people with rainbow flags in normal clothes so the entire conversation seems rather unimportant to begin with but at least within this discussion that did occur, no one is going to be stupid enough to accept "No I'm not streaking for sexual reasons, I swear!"
Some dude's desire for exhibitionism doesn't let him ignore the rights and consent of those around him. And the amount of good faith queer people (not homophobic cishets) in this discourse who say that they would feel their consent is violated should be acknowledged.
There's a naturist group that marches in our parade every year, and I have seen numerous people nude with messages on their bodies such as "still not asking for it." Am I "stupid" for believing those people aren't doing it to get their jollies at my personal expense?
I just don't see how every state of nudity or semi-nudity at pride has to be someone performing some exhibitionist kink, and if we're going to be upset at people for showing off, I don't know why we don't shame people for wearing thongs or push up speedos or tassels or mesh tops or leather shorts. Or maybe that is how you feel since you mentioned "normal" clothes. Not everyone who is not dressed in "normal clothes" is "some dude" trying to shove their junk in your face but it feels like that's the dichotomy that exists in your mind.
Now I suspect you'll say that those things are okay as long as they "don't show too much" or "too see through" but I don't even know what that I means because again, that's very subjective. People can show off and dress very provocatively without being fully nude, is it the second I can see an inch of skin in the forbidden areas that my consent is violated? Is that when something changes from "normal" to someone being an exhibitionist? It doesn't really make sense to me tbh. I can think of several instances where I saw someone nude that was clearly not sexual and when I saw someone covering up their naughty bits that was exuberating sexual energy.
We can acknowledge that people feel their consent is violated and I agree that the hypothetical man shoving his erect penis in people's faces should be shamed, but given that pride is an event attended by thousands and thousands of people and it is an event that, in part, is celebrating people's sexuality, it's hard to imagine that you'll be able to cover every ground in terms of consent when it comes to people in various states of undress (especially given that these events are often occurring on very hot days with thousands of people packed into a small space). There are a lot of folks who might feel uncomfortable from displays of sexuality that don't involve nudity because of past trauma, who also may feel like they didn't consent to that display, but it's hard to get a crowd that large and diverse to cater to every individual. It sucks but I don't know what the solution is, you can't just ask everyone to dress and act "normal."
Thankfully though there are plenty of family friendly events for folks who want something more PG.
That's an entirely different discussion than "kink" discourse. We can't start a conversation off about sexual actions, and then try to be like "well ok but some of those actions aren't sexual" in response to people critiquing the original claims. I've never said that all nudity is bad, but display of sexuality can be depending on how it's involving others into it. This is discourse that isn't just about queer people either, but also cishets https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnyn7WtD-hw. And that the discourse is also centered around cishet people should also be a pretty big sign that being gay is not the same as being kinky, they are two different spectrums all together. And not every queer person is comfortable with or wants to be involved in another person's sexual displays, because not all queer people are always horny, despite what so many arguments try to present us as.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding you but I've seen several posts where you are arguing that nudity in public (or near nudity) is inherently sexual, inherently harassment and inherently consent breaking, e.g. you argued against sitting nude in a park. I'm not sure how that can be true while naturists in a parade or nude political activists are fine. To me that says that clearly nudity isn't the issue but the intent behind the nudity, which is something we would both agree with... and maybe pride is different where you live, but I just don't see the dudes running around shoving their junk in people's faces tbh.
IMO if I don't care about naturalists walking around nude I don't see why I should be concerned if someone wants to wear a speedo or leather and a collar if they're minding their own business. I don't think everyone who does that is doing it in the exhibitionist sense either, it can be an expression of self. If the argument is that the involvement of people as spectators makes it morally wrong, I'd think that argument would apply to virtually any display of sexuality.
To be clear, I don't mean think kink, public nudity and queerness are synonymous. That doesn't mean that kink and queerness are mutually exclusive though, so I'm not sure a pride event ought to only represent people who act and dress "normal" and there are family friendly pride events for people who are concerned about their children or have traumas that make it difficult to see certain displays of sexuality.
Nudity is not inherently sexual, but it's asinine to pretend as if most of the time when a bunch of men are going around with their dongs out that they aren't doing it for sexual reasons, especially in a discussion of kink. "Kink should be allowed, our sexuality should not be shamed" "ok but I don't think we should display sexuality in front of people who don't want it without consent" "WTF it's not always sexual", it can't be both depending on what benefits the person wanting to walking around nude in front of others.
Again, I'm just not seeing the gangs of men running around shoving their dongs in people's faces at pride events. Maybe I'm going to the wrong ones, I don't know.
"I don’t think we should display sexuality in front of people who don’t want it without consent" is a more coherent argument IMO but it's pretty far reaching and it's not too different from arguments I've heard from my old conservative friends who, coincidentally, also used language like "normal" to describe queer people who dressed and acted modestly.
I mean I don't think so, the idea that public kink is disrespectful and violates consent is one that many members of the kink community themselves argue https://www.reddit.com/r/BDSMcommunity/comments/loguci/leashing_in_public/ https://www.reddit.com/r/BDSMcommunity/comments/79htlt/at_what_point_do_you_consider_public_displays_of/
Arguments like "There's a line, of course, where it's kind of silly. Wearing an obvious collar in public, IMO, isn't a problem. Calling someone "Sir" in public is fine. But if you get into things like public humiliation and very obvious and intense D/S dynamics, you have to remember that Joe Nobody walking down the street didn't give informed consent." That's the opinion I hold on the matter too, a few simple things ok but when you get to obvious sexual behavior there is no such thing as informed consent for the public and you are thus violating it and are acting unethically. You even see people making similar points like "Don't conflate homosexuality with a kink. It's extremely disrespectful.....two gay people exisiting in public is NOT inherently sexual and people who hold the perception are either extremely misguided, uniformed, or just plain ol homophobic."
When did I do this? You keep making this point even after I explicitly said that I don't think these things are synonymous. If you think something I said was homophobic please point to it.
And I really don't think walking down the street on any average day and going to a pride event are synonymous. That doesn't mean that anything goes in the latter but lets not pretend it's the same thing to go to the grocery store in your BDSM gear, where subjecting strangers is the thrill of it, and going to a festival where there is a more relaxed attitude towards sex and you are doing it as an act of self expression.
Sorry for the double reply, I just don't think we see eye to eye on this, or maybe I'm not fully understanding your argument. I might be a bit more defensive about this because I've heard these arguments used cynically by conservatives. I don't want you to feel like I'm just trying to pile on you or whatever so I'm going to step away from this thread. Thanks for your perspective and have a lovely day.