Post a response:
|
Okay, sure, I don't have a problem with your first paragraph. Except if rape really is your main argument why pederasty is unlikely to be beneficial, I think I stand on pretty firm ground. The evidence from the primate world is that consent is overwhelmingly required from the adolescent. It's also overwhelmingly required in the human historical record. The fact that rape occasionally occurs would not impede natural selection in pederasty's favour. Far more boys would NOT be raped than would be raped. Hence the gene would spread. And, as negative as rape can be, it's not clear that it will always have an overall negative effect. (I'm sticking to the earliest human history here.) A boy might be raped by a man who then goes on to give the boy benefits. A cold, calculating rapist in earliest times...hard to see in the small tribes how he'd have a very long life. For me, the idea that rape would cancel out the benefits of pederasty doesn't stack up, not by a long shot. But on that, maybe we agree to disagree. And I don't accept I'm playing an activist role here. Making the case with all due respect for natural selection principles is perfectly valid. You obviously have a bias for your theories. I'm not suggesting they are founded in ideology (although, let's face it, it is hard to fully separate it out), but pet theories often become ferociously defended against new evidence--a common pitfall. I'm open to being convinced, but not by the rape argument. Non-sexual cuteness... An adolescent boy striking a man as so cute, non-sexually, that he'll replicate what's found in a pederastic relationship. Come on, you're funning me. There's far too many male-competition reasons against it, for one thing. Perhaps trying to debate this isn't possible while you maintain there's no categorical difference between gayness and pederasty. Because there very much is. The biggest difference is purpose. Pederasty is usually bisexual and limited to the boy’s adolescence. Building on that feature, pederasty has normally been structured quite closely on some sort of time-dependent mentoring model. The gay relationship is an end in itself. It exists apart from mainstream society in a way normally functioning pederasty does not. Gayness was developed to quarantine the homosexual impulse and render straight society safe and purified. Yes, a 40yo old man can mentor a 19yo man, but in a categorically different way to a 40yo man mentoring a 13yo boy. It’s actually a very good thing that pederasty was separated out by the gay activists. The hedonistic culture of the 70’s, utterly self-indulgent and ultimately ruinous, was no place for boys to be. |