*MD/GR

[Sojourner]

It's Moon-Day, I've had 20 hardcore house trashers
out at my home, and I'm already sweeping for smokable
butts..

	"Lawd hep us!"

	   --Cpl. J. Stokes, Radford police, upon
	      entering 1100 S--- Street (circa 9/15/97)


At 03:20 PM 9/13/97 EDT, 3DEM11 at QUCDN.QueensU.CA wrote:

>Die Charles Albert, die.
>The implicit question in my other post was:
>Why is the female anatomy always--literally and metaphorically--
>up for grabs?  I'm serious.

You are 100% accurate and your question deserves a serious reply.

Way back when, some good people tried to get an amendment
added to the US Constitution.  It was called the ERA or Equal Rights
Amendment.  It didn't pass, but what it did do was awake inside of
me an awareness of "women's rights", which is a bs term, but what
it did was make me (and the nation) think about the status quo,
and hey ho, what the hail was good and what hadda go.

Female anatomy is up for grabs in literature because literature is
art of a culture.  The question must be why is female anatomy up
for grabs in the culture.

I'd love to discuss this with you point by point on here, but I
can only offer you my conclusion so we can keep mindful of
other listers.

The availability of women sexually has always been and still is
a commodity.  Whether it is women taken as plunder by the
Vikings or women trading sex for stability and financial security.
Per my own readings of popular women's magazines, a running
theme is roughly "when to compromise on your sexual happiness
in order to get X other things which mean more to you".  A man
is more likely to consent to sex if asked by a total stranger -- a 
woman needs something more, and so the whole things becomes
commerce.  Aside from homosexual men, there is next to no
trade in male prostitution.  Women can and do sell sex for almost
any price imaginable -- see all the rich and powerful men who
get "trophy" wives.  Most men could not get a dime for having
sex with someone, but women can and have received jobs, money,
opportunities, acting roles, celebrity status (see Evita), respect,
social status, food, drugs, anything for having sex with a man.  Women
in sexual positions (see Playboy) sell everything, in advertisements
for any product under the sun (including products for women).

So I will say to you, the female sexual anatomy is "up for grabs"
the same way the oil in the Middle East was in 1991.  It's a valuable
and cherished commodity, and everyone who can exploit it, will,
and that includes the virgin religious woman who is keeping herself
chaste until she is married.

This post is in now way written to place blame on anyone, or any
gender, or any group, ethnicity, creed, race, nationality, religion,
organization or affiliation, social club, group or charitable order,
fraternity or other collegiate group, current location or cultural
identification based on geography.  It is only a description of 
"what is", and not a "why".  The "why" I hope to leave to you (plural).