{"id":3618,"date":"2016-08-06T12:52:17","date_gmt":"2016-08-06T16:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howpositiveareyou.com\/?p=3618"},"modified":"2016-08-06T12:53:48","modified_gmt":"2016-08-06T16:53:48","slug":"hpay-110-celia_farber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howpositiveareyou.com\/hpay-110-celia_farber\/","title":{"rendered":"Episode 110: Sex and the Single Swede – Celia Farber Considers Julian Assange’s Refusal of an ‘HIV Test’"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In August 2010, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange refused to take an \u201cHIV test\u201d in Sweden at the request of two young women with whom he had had consensual sex. To avoid extradition to Sweden to face accusations under that country\u2019s \u201cexpansive,\u201d and expanding, rape law, Assange has been effectively imprisoned for the past four years in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.<\/p>\n<p> <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnly in the shadow of the 1980s HIV\/AIDS mushroom cloud, could a broken condom be met with such hysteria, and morph into a criminal drama, involving several governments and millions of dollars,\u201d wrote former “How Positive Are You” co-host <a href=\"http:\/\/www.howpositiveareyou.com\/about-your-hosts\/\">Celia Farber<\/a>. Close to the <a href=\"https:\/\/freeassangenow.org\/\">fourth anniversary<\/a> of Assange\u2019s exile, Elizabeth Ely joins Celia in her Manhattan kitchen for tea and discussion of her February 2016 <a href=\"http:\/\/observer.com\/2016\/02\/exclusive-new-docs-throw-doubt-on-julian-assange-rape-charges-in-stockholm\/\"><em>New York Observer<\/em> article<\/a> on the sexual politics of this unusual case.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>A \u201crock star\u201d like Assange, in his standing up to power, is as attractive as ever to women, feminist or not. One of the two women accusing Assange, Anna Ardin, is reported to have said: \u201cI was so proud, to get the coolest man in the world into bed, and to stay in my apartment.\u201d What happens the morning after, when coolness becomes coldness, and disappointment sets in?<\/p>\n<p>More seriously, what happens when, as in the modern Western world, political correctness rules? As in George Orwell\u2019s novel <em>1984<\/em>, love becomes \u201cthe most subversive thing almost that you can express.\u201d Says Celia:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>So we have a hyper-sexualized society today, and that\u2019s what you see in the Assange saga. They\u2019re not sexually inhibited, but they\u2019re spiritually and emotionally inhibited, and the only thing anybody\u2019s concerned about is protecting against this imaginary deadly virus that seems to me to be the weaponry to crush this thing that once existed between people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>With the ominous screech of sirens in the background, Celia and Beth consider the post-\u201cHIV\u201d climate of accusation, Orwell\u2019s chillingly predictive novel, claims of \u201cfeminist extremism\u201d in Swedish law and society, hysteria in an era of sexual confusion, and the paradoxical dangers of living in a risk-averse time and place.<\/p>\n<p>Asks Beth: \u201cAre we living the good life, or just the one where nothing bad happens to us?\u201d We alone choose whether to come from a place of love or a place of fear.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Celia Farber<\/strong> grew up in New York City and, fortunately for this Episode, Sweden. She wants you to read <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Crowds-Power-Elias-Canetti\/dp\/0374518203\"><em>Crowds and Power<\/em><\/a> by Elias Canetti, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/1984-Signet-Classics-George-Orwell\/dp\/0451524934\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1470501641&sr=1-1&keywords=1984\"><em>1984<\/em><\/a> by George Orwell, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/new-totalitarians-Roland-Huntford\/dp\/0812814088\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1470501683&sr=1-1&keywords=the+new+totalitarians\"><em>The New Totalitarians<\/em><\/a> by Roland Huntford. She left no word as to when the quiz will happen, and whether it will affect your grade in this course called life. Only be warned that \u201cwhen and where there is sex, accusation is lying in wait.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Beth recommends the documentary film <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fe1kjE4fqXU\"><em>We Steal Secrets<\/em><\/a> but only if you also read Assange\u2019s and WikiLeaks\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/wikileaks.org\/IMG\/html\/gibney-transcript.html\">rebuttal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2010, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange refused to take an \u201cHIV test\u201d in Sweden at the request of two young women with whom he had had consensual sex. Beth joins Celia Farber for a discussion of the sexual politics of this unusual case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1135,1137,122,1145,1140,1141,311,442,1134,464,228,11,1131,1139,1136,1045,1046,1146,1142,763,112,1144,1148,1138,1147,1149,1143,1133,1132],"class_list":["post-3618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hpay-podcast","tag-1135","tag-anna-ardin","tag-celia-farber","tag-condoms","tag-crowds-and-power","tag-elias-canetti","tag-elizabeth-ely","tag-fear","tag-george-orwell","tag-heterosexual-hiv-transmission","tag-hiv-test","tag-hiv-testing","tag-julian-assange","tag-new-york-observer","tag-novel-1984","tag-psychology-of-aids","tag-psychology-of-fear","tag-risk","tag-roland-huntford","tag-safe-sex","tag-sex","tag-sexual-hysteria","tag-socialism","tag-sofia-wilens","tag-sweden","tag-swedish-socialism","tag-the-new-totalitarians","tag-we-steal-secrets","tag-wikileaks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howpositiveareyou.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howpositiveareyou.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howpositiveareyou.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howpositiveareyou.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howpositiveareyou.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3618"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.howpositiveareyou.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3626,"href":"https:\/\/www.howpositiveareyou.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3618\/revisions\/3626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.howpositiveareyou.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howpositiveareyou.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.howpositiveareyou.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}