All actions have consequences. What the Right is talking about when they say "consequences" is really PUNISHMENT. They believe that women who have sex outside of heterosexual marriage (and those who engage in homosexual sex) need to be punished because they have sinned. The way to punish sexually active women is to take away birth control and STD protection. Then the consequences of sex are more likely to be negative: an unwanted pregnancy or disease. They certainly don't want unmarried sex or homosexual sex to have the consequence of pleasure or joy, which is more likely when partners are informed and protected. By taking away comprehensive sexual education, access to birth control and STD protection, they are hoping to increase negative outcomes. I assume this is so that they can scare people into following their religious scriptures and to punish those who don't. It certainly isn't because they care about babies or the poor. If they cared about those things, they'd be fighting for universal health care, fair wages, better pre-natal care and better education for people at all income levels.

don't you have to fulfill X-rated fantasies to have children!

As far as having children moving down on the list, is this perhaps due to the impact of the aging baby boomers? I didn't read the demographic breakdown of the survey respondents, but if a large proportion of them were baby boomers with adult children then it would make sense that their independant children don't have a big impact on the health of their marriage. What I don't understand is how it can concluded from the survey results that "sacrifice, stability, dependability, maturity" have been replaced with x-rated fantasies when the number one factor for a successful marriage is FIDELITY. Yes, having a good sexual relationship is next, but that's a relationship with your SPOUSE, not the pool boy. Sharing chores, an adequate income, good housing and shared religious beliefs are next...that doesn't sound very x-rated to me. In fact all of those sound like very practical items that do indeed make a relationship work and hopefully make marriages last.

"Abuse, intimidation, and degradation are all part of men's repertoire of tactics employed in competitive situations. In other words, men are not treating women differently from men—the definition of discrimination, under which sexual harassment legally falls—but the opposite: Men harass women precisely because they are not discriminating between men and women."

So why is it that I've never heard male boss says to his male underling "if you want to get ahead in this company, you need to give me head?" but I've had that said to me. In one company that I worked in the male chief of staff like to grab a little T&A every now and then. Strangely enough it was only the female interns that he tried for, never the male ones. Oh and when my male coworker kept on trying to pursue me to go out with even after I told him flat out that there was no way in hell that it would ever happen, even if he was the last man on the planet, he was probably propositioning my male coworkers in the same manner? Following them around, trying to rub their shoulders, smell their hair, leave them little notes, tell them how much they wanted to get to know them in a special way...Yeah right.

I don't mind having a boss tear me a new a-hole just like my male coworkers when I screw up...just as long as he doesn't try to screw me.

God, I'm so sick of the excuse that men just like/need casual sex so much that they HAVE to pursue their coworkers or subordinates. Did they never learn that somethings are OFF LIMITS? What happened to self-control? I mean I really want and need a new car, especially a Mini...they are so cute and shiny. I guess I'll just have to go and steal my neighbor's...you know he does tempt me with it by parking it outside my house. It's just begging for me to take it for a spin...I just can't help myself!

My point is not that women don't commit sexual harassment (they do, I've seen it), it's the belief that sexual harassment is just a form of joking or male bonding that women just don't understand. Some one had posted a study claiming that male on female harassment is really stemming from men treating women like they do their male coworkers. This is patently untrue, the harassment that most women endure is not something that their male coworkers had to put up with. I do not believe that all men are harassers...in my case it was two of my male coworkers that reported the harassment that I was dealing with to our HR department. They knew straight out that our coworker's actions were not appropriate. There is a huge difference between telling an off color joke and showing your female coworker porn and saying how you'd like to try that with her or trying to grab her ass when she walks by your cube. That behavior does not have any place in a professional environment. Nor does calling your subordinates "sweety" and hugging them all the time (something that I've seen female bosses do way too often). We can argue about the grey areas, such as what happens when two consenting adults start dating in the workplace and then break up. Or an inappropriate joke, or complimenting your coworker on their looks or outfit. But really, there are some actions that are clear harassment and sweeping them under the carpet of "just joking" or "typical male behavior" is total crap.