Last month, Larry Flynt co-hosted a fundraiser for Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich in Los Angeles.
Kucinich is a progressive Presidential candidate who has advocated the creation of a Department of Peace and Non-Violence in the executive branch. It is surprising that someone like Kucinich is willing to take money from Larry Flynt – a pornographer who profits off the sexual exploitation of women and makes fun of rape and domestic violence in his Hustler cartoon series.
Jackson Katz sums up these contradictions in his opinion piece:

The pioneering women who built the women’s movement – and subsequent generations of feminists/womanists — implicitly and explicitly issued a challenge to liberal and progressive men: If you truly believe the radical notion that women’s civil and human rights are every bit as important as men’s, then put your behavior where your rhetoric is….
It is willfully naïve for any self-respecting “progressive” to dismiss Flynt’s pornography as harmless “adult” entertainment. How can it be considered harmless to consistently portray women and girls in a sexually demeaning and degrading manner?

Katz explains just how demeaning and degrading Flynt has been.

“Hustler magazine, has published some of the most misogynist and racist photo layouts and cartoons in the history of mass-distributed porn magazines. He has been accused of incest by his now-grown daughter. He repeatedly dismisses women with the gumption to challenge his raging sexism as ‘anti-sex bitches’ and much worse.”

If Kucinich is serious about the principles embodied in the Department of Peace, he might be more judicious in choosing who he aligns himself with. Standing alongside Larry Flynt and cashing his check would seem to most a bad campaign image for a man so dedicated to the peaceful lives of men, women and children of our country.
Click here to read Katz’s article.