Letters to the Editor
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Asking Adults for a Little Care when Having Sex is Not Radical Feminism
I have a daughter in elementary school and I can report that ten year old bodies vary crazily- some are obviously in the middle of puberty, others are very childlike still. But a 10 year old is a ten year old, worthy and deserving of collective adult protection no matter how she dresses or acts. In any case, a man who opportunistically grabs sex from even an ersatz 16 year old in the park is a menace and should be locked up. It's not too much for society to ask a man to care enough about the person on the other end of his penis that he might ask himself if sex with her would be at least ethical and safe, if not legal.
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RE:Asking Adults for a Little Care when Having Sex is Not Radical Feminism
It is when your only asking men.
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If DOCTORS thought she was sixteen how is some normal guy supposed to know differently
It seems that people are either not getting or are forgetting certain facts that would appear key to making a rational judgment about the situation.
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@Parson Jim
As a victim advocate, I found that society in general has a distaste for pursuing indictments against people who sexually abuse children. Here is my list of the somewhat speculative reasons why grand juries/juries for instance might not indict/convict:
1. It has existed in their families and they have denied it either consciously of subconsciously. To acknowledge it in the culture at large is more than they want to deal with.
2. The abuser is by definition more powerful than the abused. Juries always favor the powerful even if they like to pretend that they do not. It is difficult and sometimes even scary to think of people in power doing abusive things.
3. Grand juries are uncertain and want to spare the child if the case isn't slam dunk. Trials are always difficult for children to deal with. They require testimony that focuses upon time and dates. Trials also require children to testify against someone who has (for however short of time) held absolute power over that particular child. Also, a defense attorney who is also an authority figure will try to trip that child up. Few people sitting on grand juries are unaware of this.
4. There is simply not enough evidence. When you have the word of a child against an adult, you need evidence. Not all, or even most, instances of child sexual abuse result in physical evidence or trauma. Add to that the fact that children often do not disclose the abuse until long after the incident and it is extremely hard to win these cases.
5. And probably the BIGGEST FACTOR: Prosecuting attorneys can play a sort of game with people. I have seen this done many times. They simply do not want to risk trial with a case that they may not win. Therefore, they seek other solutions. Sometimes they encourage the complaining parties to seek civil solutions where the standard of proof is lesser or they look to CPS to solve the problem if it is a "family matter." I have known prosecuting attorneys' offices to "lose" evidence in cases that they did not want to prosecute.
When you first posted in this thread, I thought you were a Mike Dover type trying to derail the thread into endless arguments against feminism. However, I now understand that you have legitimate concerns. At first I thought you were just here to stir the usual gender war.
You are right. Crimes against male children are no doubt prosecuted less often that crimes against female children when the crimes may be of a similar magnitude and the abuser is not a parent. There are cultural reasons for this. In the US, we have a jury system that decides these cases if they become criminal matters or it is sometimes a judge who has had/has/will have a political career.
As a culture, we (by this I mean the culture at large and not the people responding to this thread Salon readers or you and me) tend to see boys as more self-reliant than girls and more responsible for their own choices and even what happens to them. We (that culture again) seem to be uneasy about homosexuality, rever motherhood (to the point that becomes meaningless), see young attractive women as sexual objects who any guy (even a little guy) must desire, believe teachers over students, believe ministers and priests over parishoners, and don't monitor or even see the emotions of boys as clearly as the emotions of girls.
If you would like me to expand upon anything I have mentioned, please ask me. I will be happy to respond to your concerns or even debate our differences, but I have said all I intend to say to people who bring in extraeous issues or want to conflate their own overheated desires with those of sexual offenders.
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Ten yead olds do NOT look like adults
Period.
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apparently there are doctors in England who disagree with you
are they all part of a public pedophile conspiracy
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If the judge...
...were to meet with some mysterious accident, would anyone be surprised?
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@AKA Smith
The refusal to acknowledge molestation and abuse of male children is widespread on throughout the whole spectrum of ideology, from left-wing to right-wing.
The last sentence of your second to last paragraph is especially true, but rather mild concerning the reality that boys face in the Western world today, "...we don't monitor or even see the emotions of boys as clearly as the emotions of girls."
We do monitor the emotions of boys, and immediately discount them, as they do not fit with the anti-male, feminist bent of both the "helping professions" and academic institutions, both of which fail men and boys when it comes to acknowledging and remedying their problems. Nor do they fit with the traditional notions of maleness and stoic masculinity in the west. As a result, an abused boy is often treated by the law as an adult, while a female molester is treated as an intrinsically victimized child, who must receive a mild sentence befitting her privileged legal status. Left wing feminists and right wing traditionalists both smile when this occurs.
If you would like me to expand upon anything I have mentioned, please ask me. I have said all I intend to say to people who erroneously want to turn the child molestation problem into an issue that affects only female children, while rendering male victims of abuse invisible, or who want to conflate their own overheated desires with those of sexual offenders who unfortunately are given a free pass in today's society.