It's horrifying. And she lived for days afterwards. Imagine her family.

What makes someone a minor though? If we are looking at it developmentally, then really we ought to treat everyone under 25ish as minors. What makes a 17 year old different from an 18 year old? I get there has to be a cut-off point somewhere, and so it’s going to be pretty arbitrary no matter what you do. But children…

I think that is a simplification. If he had seen her walking by herself at night in Western clothes and then raped her with no one around, this is something that he might honestly have thought isn’t a big deal or that she deserved it, given the mindset of some men. Rape culture certainly then contributed to a young…

Agree with this. Also, rape and murder are more often perpetuated by young men than men in their 60s or 70s, so keeping him in prison for the next 40 years might be a good place to start.

Did this boy live a life of abuse on the streets? I thought this particular convict had not been named by the press even, due to being a minor. How do you know about his personal history? (BTW, I'm not being snarky or doubting you- it's a famous case so I'm sure that info is out there. I'm just wondering because I…

Maybe, maybe not. The larger point should be that young men who brutally gang rape women should serve sentences that better fit the crime- long prison sentences. Right now in India, there is a huge cultural movement to change concepts of how boys and girls behave, including what is acceptable for each to do in public,…

As I said, I probably used the wrong word choice. I was simply trying to differentiate from a sarcastic insult. You can’t often tell in writing what someone means, and I just wanted to point out that I was actually talking about feminism (the entire broad category of thought about equality that might include…

I don’t have the slightest idea what you are on about. I mean “real” feminism to differentiate it from its use as an insult. Maybe it wasn't the right word choice. I have no idea what you mean by othering men. Please notice that I did not bring up the effect on men. Someone else did. I responded with surprise. I was…

I’m confused by what you are asking. Luke, Leia and Han were cast first. For whatever reason, white actors (not biracial, not even slightly dark skinned, but really really white looking) were cast to play all three of them. So it’s not a matter of one parent being white and therefore necessitating white kids. It’s a…

Lovely to make assumptions. We've had a nice chat. I love Star Wars and I don't think I ever made the claim that it was sexist anywhere in any of my statements, except for the sex slave suit that Leia wore- I think that was a bad choice for that character. All I've said all along is that there aren't really any female…

She's a badass for sure. I can't imagine some dude thinking she couldn't pull him out of a firefight.

Yeah, but in Soviet Russia during and around the wars, husbands were scarce and it was really hard to snag a doctor! I bet the women had to fist fight first to see who got him.

Blah, shouldn't type when I'm emotional (or drinking, ha ha). Borne and depose or else the pedant in me will keep me awake and whatever else I missed also.

Nonsense. For most of history, it was also imperative that women face the very real and likely risk of dying in childbirth and to undergo repeated pregnancies and years of child-rearing. These days, that is totally unacceptable. Plenty of women likewise choose not to have children at all; most have one or two. No…

Fine. They could’ve cast a black man as a dad to two very white twins. And an Asian woman as aunt. Her mom could’ve been Latino and her daughter could’ve been a Wookie. I don’t think any of this would have made a lick of sense, but OKey.

Wow! I hope you have your Celiac’s under control, and thank god for saline IVs. Surely you were near death’s door- grateful you had modern medicine! I had a stomach flu once and lost seven pounds in a weekend (over 2 and a half days) and thought it was the most miraculous and disgusting thing my body had ever done up…

I think you are making a way more detailed argument than I am. I absolutely did not mean to imply that there were literally no females in the Star Wars universe. I was talking about main characters. There is Leia, her mum and her daughter/niece. I’m sure there are a gazillion unimportant random women all over the…

lol that’s not the point. You are misunderstanding, and as a mixed heritage person myself, I’m well aware of the existence of biracial offspring. The point is that someone made the decision to cast Luke and Leia (and Hans, assuming he’s the father of the new gal) as they are- as totally white people (they don’t look…

Yes it does appear that things are changing. It’s one of the things that I’m cautiously optimistic about regarding the new films. I’ve tried to protect my jaded heart from feeling even a bit of hope about it (because how the prequels hurt!), but I do admit that when I sat in a theater several months back and watched…

Yes you are correct about that. I just meant that the one complaint seems nestled inside the other. Like, if there were no Asians in Star Wars (let’s say, just as analogy) it would be weird to complain that there aren’t any Koreans specifically. Yup, there aren’t Koreans because there aren’t any Asians in the first…