After our discussion of Dan Savage’s column a while ago, I added it to my blogroll just to see what the whole thing was about. Soon I discovered that I can’t read Savage’s responses at all because he sounds over-the-top fake and his strained efforts at humor make me feel sorry for him.
What I find very weird, though, are the questions people send in to this advice column. The absolute majority of the questions can be subdivided into two categories:
1. “I don’t want to have sex with this person, please give me permission.”
2. “I want to have sex with this person, please give me permission.”
See, for instance, today’s column for examples.
It is beyond strange that adult people would think they require anybody’s permission to make these decisions.
Do you believe that Dan Savage’s staff invents these queries? I want to believe that this problem is limited to a small group of individuals who all work at the same office and isn’t wide-spread in the general population.
Clarissa's Blog 
Nope, that’s pretty much his schtick.
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How titillating–to be at the boundaries of extreme Christian fundamentalism and to consider how to use one’s sexual powers.
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You are right. I’m sure these letter-writers and letter-answerers see themselves as subversive, free and fierce. They don’t have the slightest idea that they are 100% Christian fundamentalist. And they don’t even recognize how much in thrall they are to this ideology. Those who pray and kneel at least are aware of what their doing, so there is a chance at liberation. These poor losers have none.
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Perhaps they can join the Lacanian church.
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He used to be funnier and had more interesting letters:
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/SavageLove?oid=569
I think it’s a combination of him getting older and people with seriously weird problems having more advice options.
It’s probably also another residual effect of PC manners. He can’t make fun of people like he used to because too many PC Ms Grundys* make too much of a stink.
*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs_Grundy
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I do not think this is especially weird. Many, many people feel a deeply programmed moral obligation about sex, either to have it or not to have it. Anything which can help people break through this is a good thing.
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