From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net)
Date: Thu Sep 16 1999 - 17:46:18 MDT
> Anti-masculist Western civilization will never punish a female
> for raping a boy with anywhere near the severity that punishes
> men for having sex with underage females.
This particular double standard can't be blamed on feminism,
and you should know that. It used to be even more pronounced.
Hell, the very idea that a man could be "raped" at all is very
recent--in many countries it still doesn't exist even today.
It is only in light of feminism that we even see it as a double
standard and therefore assume it must be wrong.
Frankly, though, that's one double standard I fully support, and
that fits well with the realities. Laws that treat unequal things
equally are bad laws. Sex between an older woman and young boy
is a qualitatively different act than the same act between
parties of the same age and opposite gender. The consequences
to the victim--both physical ones like pregnancy and disease
and emotional ones--are different in degree and character, and
/should/ be treated differently.
As much as Kathryn and I and others may want to transform ourselves
at will free from the constraints of biology, the fact is that we
are currently biological creatures with different natures that go
far, far, beyond the fact that I can't bear children and she can't
pee in a bottle. The law should reflect that fact (and of course
should be flexible enough to adapt when we /do/ escape those
gender-based constraints).
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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