Politicians who are legitimately stupid rarely get elected.

[infinite monkey]

Akin's comments echoed as far away as the Democratic Republic of Congo, where award-winning playwright Eve Ensler penned a powerful open letter titled, "Dear Mr. Akin, I Want You to Imagine..."

Akin isn't giving up The U.S. author of "The Vagina Monologues" wrote that she was lying awake at 2 a.m. in Bukavu in the City of Joy in the Congo where she was working to support "thousands of women who have been raped and violated and tortured from this ceaseless war for minerals fought on their bodies."

"Mr. Akin, your words have kept me awake," she wrote, before explaining what it means for women who have been raped to hear him make the distinction between "legitimate" and "illegitimate" rape.

"The underlying assumption of your statement is that women and their experiences are not to be trusted. That their understanding of rape must be qualified by some higher, wiser authority," she wrote, before imploring him to imagine someone "violently, hatefully forcing themself into you so that you are ripped apart."

On a more serious note, Brooks wrote: "What strikes me about the anachronistic attitudes of evangelicals and their Republican puppets to abortion, contraception, family planning, female economic empowerment and feminism in general, is just how unambiguously male these attitudes are.

"An entire political party in one of the most advanced and educated countries on earth has become a caricature of the most basal evolved insecurities about masculinity. They seem terrified of losing control over the means of reproduction and petrified of cuckoldry," he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/22/world/...html?hpt=hp_t2

[henry quirk]

"I didn't buy the paper for 40 bucks"

Me neither...the abstract is all I got too. As to what it says, the abstract gives a sufficient overview to work with, hence my suggestion 'make of this what you will and can'.


#

*"a huge gap between his understanding and reality"

Agreed.









*it's the gap my posting of the abstract addresses...Akin believes a woman's flesh is capable of distinguishing between consensual and nonconsensual sex...he believes the flesh can then 'act accordingly'.

If the paper the abstract is drawn from is accurate, then, one potential and unsettling conclusion is a woman's body may indeed distinguish between consensual and nonconsensual sex and, in 'acting accordingly' may become more fertile (or receptive to insemination).

I offer no moral, ethical, or even personal assessment here...just offering up the nugget for each to do with as he or she will.

[henry quirk]

I googled this...

"Are per-incident rape-pregnancy rates higher than per-incident consensual pregnancy rates?"

...the title of the paper and abstract, and found this...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...n-other-women/

"As to why rape victims would have a higher rate of pregnancy, the Gottschalls put forward a few theories. They look at previous research, which suggests that men are more attracted to women who are fertile and ovulating. In consensual sex, women can decline sex at a time where there might be a high likelihood of pregnancy. That’s not the case in rape."


I prefer the above explanation(s) to the (again) unsettling notion rape could be biologically or evolutionarily beneficial.

In any event, as V says, "(there is) a huge gap between (Akin's) understanding and reality".

[piercehawkeye45]

I can get the article for free (yay public university!) but I'm not going to post it for legal reasons. PM if interested.

[BigV]

If the paper the abstract is drawn from is accurate, then, one potential and unsettling conclusion is a woman's body may indeed distinguish between consensual and nonconsensual sex and, in 'acting accordingly' may become more fertile (or receptive to insemination).

... you were doing much better before this edit.

My theory for why the rate of pregnancy from consensual sex might be lower is that there's just a lot more sex going on, period (hehehe, I said period). Since there is just one chance for pregnancy per month, that rate gets... diluted when there's so much more non-baby making sex is going on.

[henry quirk]

So: I don't get an A?

*shrug*

[infinite monkey]

I can't believe we're having discussions about the scientific validity of that pasty old white man's statement, when all over the world cats are sneaking into babies' cribs and stealing their breath!

--a public service announcement brought to you by Old Husband's Tales, Inc.

[henry quirk]

Everyone knows the babies are askin' for it.

[infinite monkey]

Ch'yeah. Now get in the kitchen, baby, and make me a sandwich.

[henry quirk]

Don't be silly...that should be 'now crawl into the kitchen, baby, and make me a poop.'

[infinite monkey]

I got carried away, so giddy was I with all this smart boy talk about a statement that deserves no second thought beyond "this Akin guy is stupid and dangerous and a misogynist."

Although I'm sure his handlers have him saying stuff about how much he really loves women and stuff; they make the best sandwiches.

[infinite monkey]

Sorry guys, I was kidding...being my sarcastic old self.

[morethanpretty]

Originally Posted by infinite monkey

Sorry guys, I was kidding...being my sarcastic old self.

Don't be sorry for being yourself, we love yourself! Or at least I do.

[infinite monkey]

Thanks, mtp!

[Pico and ME]

Exactly, and your response was quite appropriate.