Stop right there. Don’t you dare judge MacKenzie Phillips or her father John Phillips. You hear me, you judgemental Christianistas.
Of course, you know that Mackenzie Phillips’ claimed on Oprah that her father and she had an incestual consensual relationship for many years.
CBS reports:
In her new memoir, “High on Arrival” and in televised interviews, the former child star alleges she had an almost decade-long sexual relationship with her father, the late rock icon John Phillips of the ’60s super group, the Mamas and the Papas.
She says it started out as rape but became consensual. Phillips also claims she got pregnant at one point and her father paid for an abortion, thinking the baby might be his.
So yeah, the initial rape was bad but after that these were two consenting adults. And according to the Supreme Court it’s not anybody’s business what goes on behind closed doors when two consenting adults go there.
Lawrence vs. Texas explicitly states that intimate consensual sexual conduct was part of the liberty protected by substantive due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. (See Santorum)
So it’s all good.
And look, these two were “together” for ten years. Ten years. That’s a committed relationship. I’ve known many so called “normal” relationships that didn’t last as long. Why can’t you acknowledge their love? I think you just need to more accepting? Why can’t you people stop being so judgemental saying that these people can fall in love and these other people can’t. I mean, who died and put you in charge of the “love police?”
I know one of the arguments you people make against interfamilial love is that there’s an increased chance of birth defects in the offspring. But the Phillips’ did the responsible thing and got rid of the baby…err…fetus before it could be born with birth defects. It was better off that way for all, right? So there was no chance of a baby being born with birth defects because they responsibly paid for someone with some medical background to kill it.
So as long as they did the responsible thing and didn’t add a defective baby to the gene pool, what could possibly be wrong with two legally consenting adults finding love.
So dear CMR reader, of course I’m being facetious about all this but given the legalities of the day of gay marriage and abortion, I dare you to find the illogic of this argument.
Little Miss Attila has more on this story. And it’s sad when I see that someone who calls themselves “Attila” is nicer than me.
September 25, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Little Miss Attila looks at this from the viewpoint of someone in recovery. She cites her own experience of over 18 years to back up her views. Fair enough.
As a recovering alcoholic of over 22 years experience I'll call "hogwash" on any such justification for this tripe. Yes, coming clean about many sordid details of your life is part and parcel of the AA method. But it should be done in the anonymous setting of a meeting, NOT in a public fashion (which coincidentally will guarantee substantial income for a time).
M. Phillips is just making money off a "tell all" book, dragging her compliant readers thru the sewer of her life and dressing it up as part of her "recovery".
BALONEY!!
September 25, 2009 at 7:08 pm
I don't think this sort of thing should be put out for sale in any form. If she wants to come forward as a face for it, let it be out of a desire to help others, not as a profit-generating product.
That said, not one bit of the coverage argued that incest was acceptable, merely that there was a difference between being raped by one's father and having an affair with one's father– which is true. Basically, she's told the world she had a perverse love for her father– that's hardly a strong recommendation.
September 25, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Incest is never good, I don't care what anyone says. I felt bad for Mackenzie Phillips, having read about her upbringing etc but even then, I did wonder about her father, what with all the drugs and permissiveness that he exposed her to. Her story about Mick Jagger was weird enough to me. I feel more sad than sickened right now. My story is different from hers but I can still empathise. But this…. No, not this. I guess I'll go back to being sickened if I should watch her on Larry King tonight. But maybe I'll watch it to have a better understanding of Ms. Phillips. (If Larry King doesn't put me off first with his "probing" questions)
Sue
September 25, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Sue,
I wish you hadn't brought up Larry King and his "probing" questions. I was having a hard enough time with the disturbing images related to this story as it was.
My first thought (after yuk, that is) was that McKenzie Phillips had found a new and "newsworthy" taboo that hadn't yet been exploited in the ongoing parade of celebrity tell-all books.
I can almost see McKenzie and her "literary advisors" having a lightbulb moment: "Hmmm…let's see, former addicts are a dime a dozen these days, but you hardly EVER hear anyone talk about their struggles with incest. Hey, that's a niche! Let's go with it! Someone get Oprah on the phone…."
September 25, 2009 at 7:33 pm
I feel very sorry for that poor woman. Her father got her started on drugs, raped her, then seduced her. In addition, he exposed her to many other moral and physical dangers. It sounds like she still doesn't realize how much he abused her.
He has much to answer for.
September 25, 2009 at 8:35 pm
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
September 25, 2009 at 8:39 pm
I really did not need to look at that website.
"we really cannot judge what other people have to do to heal their pasts."
Oh yes we can, if what they do is public! The whole craze of "confessing" all the weird or bad things one has done through a book or on television has gone WAY too far. Beyond appealing to people's prurience, it can give the impression that all sorts of things are normal and it can also add to a person's probably disordered desire for fame.
And the comments are equally disturbing. I sympathize with anyone who has been abused, however some things are better off left between you and your therapist, or you and God, than shared with the entire world. That can't be good for anyone.
September 25, 2009 at 9:17 pm
To Anonymous 2:31PM
Sorry, that probably was the wrong word to use but it was honestly what came to mind. I was describing his interviewing techniques. (Watching him interviewing Levi Johnston was very off-putting, I have to admit, and I vowed never to watch him again.)
I didn't realise this segment with Ms. Phillips had already aired and tonight's will be a repeat. I'll probably watch it out of curiosity, silly goon that I am.
Sue
September 26, 2009 at 4:52 am
That isn't the only issue the Supreme Court is weighing in on. In a few weeks, the Court will ear oral arguments on an important Church-State case involving the display of a cross on Sunrise Rock in California. This is an important case that will test the new majority on the US Supreme Court.
As an attorney who writes about these matters of Church and State, please see the discussion about this case on my blog, "Constitutional Writes" at http://tonykolenc.blogspot.com/.
September 26, 2009 at 6:50 am
Consenting adults or not this is really sick. This woman has been under this mans influence and supposed care from a young age and is obviously delusional – even taking some of the blame for herself.
Despite what this very mixed up women thinks they are not lovers – they are a sick monster and his very confused victim.
Somehow society is turning this very worrying act of incest into some kind of sexy fantasy – I can across a story site the other day xxxstoryxxx.com that even has sex stories written about incest for entertainment!
This is abuse – it is someone in a position of power taking advantage – not titillating entertainment!
I wish this poor women well on her road to recovery and I hope one day she truly realizes the extent of the abuse so she can heal.
September 26, 2009 at 8:43 am
As sickening as this is, I think it makes more sense than childhood sexual abuse.
Think about it. To have sex with a baby or a child is utterly perverse. It boggles the mind. Yet thousands of men do that very thing to their daughters daily.
For him to wait until she was 18 – sick, yes. But not as sick as pedophilia.
We have no trouble (Lord help us) believing it when a man has sex with his 3 year old daughter. So why would we doubt it when he has sex with his 18 year old daughter? It is actually MORE plausible.
As for her – she was raped the first time. In date rape, it is typical of women to have consensual sex with the rapists later as a weird way of justifying and erasing the first rape in their minds. Maybe that is what she was doing.
She was raised in SUCH a jacked up environment – anything would be possible. Remember a person raised like that, and a drug abuser, at 18, probably has a severe case of arrested development. So psychologically, MP was probably more like a 13 year old. And 13 year olds are certainly not responsible for incest.
September 28, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Do either of them "wear" a lable that says "Christian"? If they do then as Christians, we will MOST DEFINITELY judge them as that is our calling. If they are NOT Christians then God will judge!
September 28, 2009 at 7:14 pm
I listened to a show on BlogTalk Radio where Myeka and Imani thanked Ms. Phillips for her revelation. One of them pointed out that this is indicative of a societal ill that has just been kept secret and that when it happens to celebrities and other famous people it is a way of saying this is a problem not just for them but for the society. this show was so informative. I reccomend that everyone listen to it.
Myeka and Imani had a discussion thanking Mackenzie Phillips for her revelation on BlogTalk Radio. This is an inciteful and informative talk that analyzes incest its cause and cure. You can listen to this at:: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/myeka-live