Site Presented By
Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Treeple
Published Letters: 487 Editor's Choice: 16
"Latino teen girls have the highest suicide rate in US"
No they don't, not even close. The population with the highest rate of suicide--by a lot--in the US are white men over 65 yrs. Native American men, particularly younger ones, have relatively high rates, too. Women across the ethnic spectrum tend to die by suicide much less frequently than men, and this is true almost everywhere in the world (with the exception of China and some South Asian countries).
What you might have read or heard are that rates among Latinas are increasing (i.e. that a greater percentage committed suicide than last year, but still fewer than the groups above), or that attempted suicides are increasing. Either of those things are a problem, but there is a world of difference.
And why would that statistic, even if true, "bear greatly" in this article? Do you think that Latino culture is so simple that everything important can be addressed in a single book, let alone a single book chapter? If you're actually interested, there are people writing about suicide among Latina teens. Find them.
I am a vegetarian, and let me just say, as long as I'm not tasting balogna, I'll sleep with anyone! (Well...)
But really, this is only a story because it offers a chance to coin another [blank]-sexual term now that metrosexual is PLAYED.
I remember reading and hearing a lot about "Why didn't Elizabeth Smart escape?" when that all went down. I don't think the judgment was as harsh. Probably because it's easier to imagine a sweet, innocent girl being psychologically bound than a teenage boy with a piercing. I'm talking about people who don't know anything about child/adolescent development or trauma, of course. And who lack empathy.
There are plenty of men who would think that 30 seconds of unwanted sex was a long time. Long enough to pass consensual in the rear-view mirror. And there are probably women who would disagree. Don't make rape a woman thing.
It sounds like a broadsheet feminist is just the antithesis of yourself. Which I'm sure is very gratifying and reassuring for your own importance, but I don't know any people, here or in real life, who would affirm the laundry list of opinions broadsheet feminists supposedly stand for. And even if someone did, it doesn't change the fact that the prostitute was raped.
I think it speaks well of you that you have difficulty imagining a man deliberately ejaculating inside a woman after agreeing not to. I can't really see it, either, but that's because the men I generally sleep with are good guys. I work at a place with people who haven't known many good guys at all, and shit like that happens all the time. Maybe the difficulty you have admitting that drastically changing the contours of an agreed sexual experience should count as rape speaks to some truth in the hyperbole AKA Smith used a while back. And come where you didn't expect come is drastic--and harmful. I would choose a lot of hardships over an unwanted pregnancy.
Wow, Brightstar, you really have us ladies pegged! Why, just this week I donated half my paycheck to a secret group of feminist scientists who are working on a way for us gals to procreate without you. Then I used my reduced income to make me appear vulnerable and needy to a man so I could obtain food and other material goods. Only this guy insisted on wearing a condom, preventing me from using my womb to entrap him into a lifetime of free shit, so he had to go. To let off a little steam, I called up an ex and told him that I'd aborted his baby without telling him--ha ha ha! (That didn't actually happen, but I've got to keep my talons sharpened and ready for when women rule the world. Well, more than we do already--wink wink!)
Your soul is corroded, BS. When are you going to do something about it?
It hurts and hurts and then it hurts some more. And then you think you should be feeling better about it, but you don't, because it still hurts. And then enough time passes so that you are embarrassed to bring it up with your friends, so you don't. But it still hurts.
You are trying to change how you feel. It doesn't have to work, but the trying is good. It will work one day--just maybe not for a long time.
I second the poster who has no sympathy for St. Joe's "no sympathy." The "practical matter" wasn't really what the letter was about. But good for you for being so practical.
I've been reading about this cultural double standard, pro and con, for-about-ever. South Park did it best, with the pre-school age Ike as the junior Lothario. Absurd and awesome.
It's appealing to parents who believe that boys and girls are different, i.e. most parents who have both boys and girls. Don't worry, many of those parents will still let their girls play with trucks and won't get bent out of shape if their boy wants to play with a doll. I could (and did) play with whatever I wanted, and so could my brothers, and so can my niece and nephews. But my niece and I can dress up her dolls for hours without getting bored, and my nephew plays with trucks. Go figure. It's possible to believe both that there are different brains in there AND that individual differences will put many girls and boys in the same play space.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
