Mike Huckabee: Amateur Philosopher
It’s not often that you hear politicians quoting philosophers. So it was particularly surprising to hear Mike Huckabee quoting a famous philosopher known for her work in Greek philosophy, ethics, and the theory of social justice.
Here is what Huckabee said in the New Yorker:
I do believe that God created male and female and intended for marriage to be the relationship of the two opposite sexes. Male and female are biologically compatible to have a relationship. We can get into the ‘ick factor,’ but the fact is two men in a relationship, two women in a relationship, biologically, that doesn’t work the same.
When criticized for this “ick factor” comment, Huckabee said that he didn’t invent the term and that the term comes from those supporting same sex marriage and that it was coined by U of Chicago philosopher Martha Nussbaum.
Nussbaum responds:
I have never used the phrase “ick factor” in any of my three books dealing with the emotion of disgust, or in any articles. I use the term “projective disgust” to characterize the disgust that many people feel when they imagine gay sex acts. What does that term mean, and to whom does it apply? The view I develop, on the basis of recent psychological research, is that projective disgust has its origin in a discomfort with one’s own body and its messier animal aspects, including sexuality, and that, in a defense mechanism, disgust is then projected outward onto vulnerable groups who are characterized as hyperphysical and hypersexual. In this way, the uncomfortable people displace their discomfort onto others, who are then targeted for various forms of social discrimination.Thus the people to whom the term “projective disgust” applies are the insecure and emotionally stunted people who campaign against equal rights for gays and lesbians, not gays and lesbians themselves.
Mr. Huckabee has gotten bad information about my work and has completely turned its meaning upside down, imputing to me a position (that gays and lesbians are disgusting) that I criticize as childish and morally deficient.
He owes me a public apology.
Nussbaum is understandably annoyed. But I actually think he does not misunderstand her view as much as she thinks. I think Huckabee was trying to say that he had some familiarity with the kind of point Nussbaum was making, but that his own stance against gay marriage is not based on his own “projective disgust” but rather on an argument having to do with proper biological functions. But that’s a pretty crappy argument too.