[lbo-talk] Penn State

[// ravi]

On Nov 10, 2011, at 10:30 PM, Shane Mage wrote:
> The topic is, was "consensual sex" a possibility or an impossibility? My questions are basically: Are children capable of voluntary behavior?  And, assuming a positive answer to that question:  What is it about sex that makes it an exception? Since I was convinced by Freud, as well as by experience, that humans are sexual beings from the earliest infancy I find it hard to imagine an argument for the proposition that sexual companionship is so different from all other human urges that children cannot desire it and voluntarily try to gratify their desire.  But if anybody wishes to offer such an argument I would be more than happy to enter into dialogue on the topic.

Alright, okay, that’s pretty clear. And appreciated. I will wait for the counterarguments.

Following “Carrol’s Law”, I will try my own answer: there are two parts to it: one is that sexual companionship is not different from all others - it is equally vulnerable to manipulation as other “relationships” when it involves a child and an adult. The second is that, given such a premise of exploitation, we (humans) do rank violations (such as exploitation) by some scale of severity.

I am told that there are tribes in Africa (it’s always tribes in Africa or the Amazon in these stories, isn’t it?) where young male children are made to perform oral sex on older men in order to outfit them (the young ‘uns) with sperm. Or some such scientific idea. I am also told that these boys grow up quite well-adjusted and lacking scars and what not.

That might be true. But it’s not the same thing, is it?

	—ravi