Male animals sometimes do have sex with unwilling females who do their best to be uncooperative. I can see how you might decide not to call it rape for fear of anthropomorphizing or something, but it does happen. There is a theory that elephants suffer post traumatic stress syndrome when their social group has been…

I've heard of this on an old BBC series called "The Secret Life of Birds". I think the selection mechanism is like one of the things you guessed, that offspring are weaker when the female plays no role in selecting her mate. The female "duckess" does not refuse all "ramming", just the "ramming" from males she deems…

I read a really great book on self defense. I'm sorry, I really wish I could remember the name or even the author. Go to the library and get some materials out. In the book I read, the actual physical combat stuff was covered but I only flipped through it and didn't practice any. The first part of the book…

Thank you. So many people's visceral response is that they will simply exert complete control over their children in order to protect them, not acknowledging that control over anything is impossible. My parents had a no questions asked policy for phoning for a ride home regardless of time, place, or level of…

Thanks for the details. It's a fine balance between protecting people and respecting their agency. The rules as you explained them seem very reasonable (except the part about 18 year olds being fair game for pervy cops and psychaitrists, eew).

Luckily there is nothing on the books saying that a 14 year old can never under any circumstances consent to sex. I am also glad that naive but consenting 14 year olds can be protected by the law from their pervy teachers and psychiatrists etc...

I think there are situations where older teenagers prey on younger teenagers and they should be dealt with in the justice system. I also believe there are cases where a 15 year old girl and a 19 year old guy are physically and psychologically the same age and it is just teenagers having sex. The courts have some…

I was sexually active when I was 14 (which I thought was the age of consent in Canada but perhaps that has changes sometime in the last 10 years) and I think it would have been pretty outrageous for the older teenage boys I was having sex with to go to jail for any length of time. I think in the case that was…

Photos are always retouched. It is not Beyonce's fault or choice that the conventional standard for beauty is caucasian. She may not be happy with her altered skin tone in that photo either.

I developed a real friendship with my ex boyfriend's sister. We still keep in touch from time to time, it has nothing to do with my former relationship with him but with my current relationship with her. You say they were not close, however even if that is true, perhaps there is something she finds rewarding about…

It still seems rather arbitrary, but if that works for you that's great. Also, it still seems like a long time, not a long time to wait for a teenage virgin, but for someone you are married to. I try to not impose any specific time limits on myself or my partner because our dry spells usually happen under varying…

The doping is no longer alleged, it's been proven. As far as lifting the ban on performance enhancing drugs, there is some absurd hair splitting around what is allowed and what is not, there are questionable rules about maximum levels of testosterone that women can have in their blood, with the advances of gene…

I just read a response from jurippe regarding my correction of the misquote. I am now pretty sure jurippe is a troll.

I understand, that's why I said it was an appropriate response. It also occurs to me that jurippe may have been speaking in earnest but I read it as a twisting of the author's words followed by a sarcastic accusation that the author thinks all athletes actually are rapists.

The actual quote is "We're finally sick of pretending that athletes CAN'T BE rapists," (emphasis mine). It was an intentional misquote that you responded appropriately to while under the impression that it was an accurate quote.

Actually, it reads we're "sick of pretending that athletes CAN'T BE rapists." Emphasis mine. Totally different.

For some reason, within institutions (the church, schools, athletic clubs) there seems to be an inability for people to confront these issues. I don't think people have trouble believing that star athletes at other schools are capable of rape but certainly not the ones at their school, not the guys on "our" team. …

As another commenter noted, there will always be females working in and visiting the prison, not to mention in society at large where some of them will end up in the future. If they behave unacceptably, they should be punished, taken out of the general population for awhile. I don't believe rapists and murderers…

Evolution is dependent on selection pressure. Generally, people aren't dying of diabetes and hypertension until after they have reached reproductive age and usually well after. That means they have plenty of time to reproduce. Not to mention that some of these problems are environment affecting gene expression…