Ask Pharmakon

He wrote in the OP: "Seems pretty clear to me that, given a choice, boys would prefer to have sexual access to girls. " In agreeing with him, I modified what he wrote slightly by inserting the modifier "adolescent." I think you're right about boys in the 8-12 range but once puberty sets in and hormones start raging, the majority of boys are going to lust after -- and prefer -- girls. Which doesn't mean they won't get it on with each other (or sometimes with younger men they admire and seek to emulate) if girls aren't available -- unless, of course, they've been subject to 24/7 messages that it's horrible sin, "against nature," or might turn them gay. (For what it's worth, I've read the first three writers you mention but not the last two.) SR