What am I missing here? As far as I can make out, the drunken paratrooper behaved like a perfect gentleman, considering.

The part about remaining sober because of her pregnancy was exquisite.

Posted by: Moira on November 12, 2005 02:47 PM

What a bunch of idiots. And talk about hostile environments -- anyone who disagrees with the official line gets gang-browbeaten by the flock.

You can feel good about yourself or you can pursue truth, but you can't effectively do both at the same time.

Posted by: Jonathan on November 12, 2005 05:06 PM

My assumption is that the story is a fiction designed to provoke "slut shaming" responses. In other words, we were supposed to overlook the legal fact that a women can withdraw her consent at any time under any circumstances, notwithstanding the tawdy nature of those circumstances.

The California Supreme Court in "John Z." dealt with a not dissimilar situation involving a drunk women having sex simultaneously with two men. The case certainly sets up the unexceptional rule that consent may be withdrawn, but read the facts of the case, and wonder about the situation of the man who was convicted of rape and hereinafter will be categorized as a sex offender: was it so obvious to him - a minor who was as drunk as the woman - that consent had been withdrawn? Presumably, the jury so found, but to some extent the finding turned on how quickly the defendant withdrew after she claimed that she withdrew her consent.

Feminists will obviously push the margins of the consent issue as a blow against patriarchy, but out Justice Brown's dissent, which raise the real issue of whether the defendant really wa a rapist.

Also pertinent to the post is Justice Brown's characterization of the case: "'This is a sordid, distressing, sad little case. From any perspective, its facts are appalling.'"

She was right, and the Alas A Blog author's story, if true, merits the same description.

As Plato demonstrated long ago, not all pleasures are the same. Certainly, we are permitted to use our reason to judge the taste of a pregnant woman to have sex with strange men to be a depravity.

Posted by: Peter Sean Bradley on November 14, 2005 11:51 AM

Good point about fiction. Experts say that most erotic Internet content is produced by teenaged boys pretending to be sex-crazed thirtysomething blog vixens.

Posted by: Jonathan on November 15, 2005 02:06 PM

Jonathan,

Nice point about "teenaged boys pretending to be sex-crazed thirtysomething blog vixens."

I was assuming that this was a fictional account by a "thirtysomething blog vixen". On reflection, I have to wonder what thirty something female would think that finding "no strings attached sex" was so difficult that it required a hook-up with a pair of anonymous trained killers, or that the scenario described was so reasonable or common-place that it merited nothing more than a tone of slight annoyance over frustrated plans.

On the other hand, a teenage boy might very well buy into the idea that the scenario described in the post reflects the normal idea of fun for some gals.

I'm being facetious about the teenage boy hypothesis. I think the post is probably an attempt by a feminist blog vixen to yank the chains of anyone who might feel inclined to describe the scenario as "sordid, distressing, sad...from any perspective ...appalling."

Posted by: Peter Sean Bradley on November 16, 2005 05:13 PM