First of all, I would like to see one true example of a person getting on a sex registry for life for peeing in public. I'm just not buying it. It's not a sex crime, in the first place. And by the way, if you have ever lived anywhere where it's common for men to whip it out and whiz in public, you'd be grateful for anti-public urination laws. I don't see why not wanting to watch people urinate and not wanting to smell their urine makes me a puritan with hang ups.

When I was 11, a man followed me to where I had locked my bike and offered me money for sex. I was so upset that I couldn't even talk about it for a few days, when I finally told my mother, she cried that her daughters couldn't go to the mall without being approached by a pervert. I get very angry when I think about the 11 year old me. I SMILED at him, because I thought he needed help. For the first time I looked at my clothes and wondered if I looked slutty. Would I like a man like that to be publicly humiliated on a registry? Hell yes. I hope he is on one right now. My sister was flashed when she was 12. A friend's daughter was groped by her best friend's father when she was 12. They were devastated. Minor crimes being overreacted to by prudes afraid of male genitalia? Or adult bullies counting on underage girls being too frightened and ashamed to stop them from getting their thrills?

These "minor offenses" are major factors of quality of life for children and women. Most of us would rather live next door to a petty theif than a man who masturbates on his front porch while your daughter plays in the front yard. If your neighbor flashed you every morning, would you be so sanguine about these crimes? It's easy to be calm about something that hasn't affected you, but a creep who commits crimes deserves to be put in the on-line stocks. Include theives? Fine by me.

By the way, masturbating onto a couch in front of a woman who has said no to sex? There is something very disturbing about that. I wonder how the victim would describe the incident- evidently it disturbed her enough to confide in friends and pursue a criminal case. What sounds like a silly mistake to someone could have been a very scary not to mention disgusting event for the woman involved. Maybe she should have thanked him for j-ing off in front of her instead of raping her, but I don't think so.

Sinamon, I am by no means an expert on the subject, but I have been up close at several sex assault trials, guilty pleas, police interviews, sentencings and probation interviews and I can tell you that the idea that pissing in public gets you on a sex offender registry is false. As is the idea that a violent rapist gets the same treatment as a 17 year old with his 16 year old girlfriend. I have never heard of this really happening- and whenever I have heard of something similar happening, the details are always worse than they seemed at first- like it was a 25 year old with a 15 year old and the public exposure charge was a plea bargain for someone who flashed 11 year olds.

In my state and I suspect in others the sex offender registries exempt certain sex crimes and inclusion on the registry becomes a bargaining point for the attorneys. This idea that sex registries and harsh punishments are some sort of hysterical overreaction has become accepted as gospel truth by people who really don't know what they are talking about, and buy the stories of public whizzers going to jail for rape. Show me a person who has been overconvicted for a sex crime, and I'll show you a rare aberration or a else someone who isn't telling the whole story. The tone here of "let's just give the sex offenders a little treatment and understanding" is bothersome. Even "harmless" sex crimes like a man groping his daughter's 12 year old friend wouldn't seem harmless if you were the 12 year old, or she your daughter.

Teenage girls are worrying about their appearance! Feminism is dead. Are boys STILL worried about being tall anough as well? We'll have to examine the state of US manhood later.

Really: I don't really care if a 12 year old feels pressure to be thin (and a lot of 12 year olds of both sexes could use alittle more physical activity anyway if you know what I mean). I care about whether reproductive choice, educational and professional opportunities, and protection against gender related violence will exist as she moves into adulthood and beyond. By these measures, feminism is laive and well. Lighten up, everyone.