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10WE'VECOMEALONGWAY???In a feature article on animalrights, the New York Daily News Magazinepoints out that rather than consideranimal protection as somethinghumane and kindly, today's activistsconsider it an animal's right—and entitlement.Their belief in the sanctity ofnon-human life might make the activistssound like right-to-lifers, but. infact, they are mainly pro-choice feminists.Religious fundamentalists actuallyoppose animal rights. Following the dictatesof the Old Testament, they believethat animals have no souls and mankindhas been given dominion over them.Considering the slaughter, tortureand violence practiced on animals, andthe violence against, and subjugation ofwomen, it may be time to re-think mankind's"dominion"—or is the wordspelled d-o-m-i-n-a-t-i-o-n?The London Daily Telegraphreported that two teenage girls, one ofwhom was being sexually abused by herfather, committed suicide after beingdenied contraceptive pills because theylacked parental consent. Three AppealCourt judges restricted doctors' rightsto prescribe the pills to under-age girlsunless the parents were first informed.The judges ruled that a Health Departmentcircular advising doctors that theycould give contraceptive advice or contraceptiveswithout parental knowledgewas illegal.It seems that not only illegal abortionsbut lack of access to preventivemeasures can be fatal to women. Interestingdata for those of the new rightwho would deny sex education in theschools and push for parental consentfor contraceptives.As reported in The Journal ofAbnormal Psychology: New Research byDrs. April Fallon and Paul Rozm of theUniversity of Pennsylvania shows thatboth men and women tend to be unrealisticabout how others perceive theirbodies, but men distort the perceptionpositively and women do so negatively.The study was based on measures ofnearly 500 women and men. Drs. Fallonand Rozin, as well as other experts,believe that, because men's ideals forwomen's bodies tend to be thinner thanmost women feel their bodies are, thismay account for higher rates amongwomen of bulimia and anorexia nervosa.which hinge on extremes of eating anddieting. About 90 percent of those whosuffer from those disorders are women.And women will continue to sufferuntil they accept their own identitiesinstead of those put forth bymedia, fashion, and by males in general.From Depthnews/Women's Feature:Virginity restoration is big businessin Bombay. Many patients areupper-crust Arab women, others areIndian women, mainly Muslims. Mostpatients are in the 21-26 age group, andmany of them have been deserted bytheir lovers. Future marriages would bejeopardized by a loss of virginity, whichturns the women into "damaged goods,'so hymenoplasty is performed to"patch" them up.In the old days, women used alumto "restore" virginity for similar reasons,and sheets were hung out stainedwith wine (if their blood didn't flowfreely enough.)Studies presented at a symposiumon the effects of violent pornography,at a meeting of the American PsychologicalAssociation, show that violenceagainst women—even non-sexual violence—inthe media leads many viewersto accept the attitudes of rapists. In onestudy, males viewing "slasher" moviesover a period of days found the moviesprogressively less upsetting and moreenjoyable. When asked to sit as themock jury of a rape case, the men oftenjudged the victim to be at fault. Interestingly,women who viewed the samemovies had a parallel reaction. Additionally,Dr. Neil Malamuth. a psychologist atthe University of California, said that ina series of tests on the effects ofgraphic, nonsexual violence againstwomen, 30 percent of the men weresexually aroused by the violence—somethingpsychologists previously thoughtwas unique to men who actually rapedwomen. According to Dr. John Briere, apsychologist at the University of Manitoba,"The most telling effect of scenesof violence toward women may be onour children, who are still forming theirsexual outlooks. We won't know foryears exactly what the effects of thatexposure will be. But it's unlikely to bevery healthy."Teenagers are the majority ofmovie audiences for "slasher" movies.Add to that cable TV. which is watchedby even younger children, and thepotential for future rapists and victimsis terrifying—a real life horror movie.But this trend will continue as long assex and violence brings in-the megabucks!What did women get out of thesexual revolution? Mainly sexuallytransmitteddiseases, according to physicians,health experts and departmentsof health throughout the country, and—due to the nature of women's physiology—mostof the STDs have moreserious consequences for them than formales. In fact, many of the malesremain entirely asymptomatic, passingthe diseases on to women throughsemen and/or saliva, while showing nooutward signs of infection. Among our"new" arrivals are chlamydia. a majorcause of infertility and pelvic inflammatorydisease in women; recent evidenceshows that women on the Pill are especiallyat risk. Last year. 3 to 4 millionnew cases were diagnosed. Genital herpesclaimed more than 300.000 newvictims. Veneral warts, which like herpes,have been linked to cervical canceraffect more than a million annually; andAIDS is spreading among heterosexuals.Now the papilloma virus, present incommon warts, is suspected in cervicalcancer also. The virus is passed onthrough semen, and, possibly saliva,from males who have warts, or whohave had a sexual partner who hasthem. (Sometimes the warts are internalin women, and they are unaware ofthem.) All together, physicians nowknow of at least 25 diseases spreadthrough sexual contact—and the numberkeeps growing. Epidemiologists estimateabout 27,000 new cases of STDsoccur daily, and that eventually 25 percentof all Americans between the agesof 15 and 55 will be infected. Althoughmultiple sex partners certainly increasethe risk, even one romantic encounterwith a person who has (or has had) justone other sexual partner is all that ittakes. The worst news is that, at thistime, many of the diseases areincurable.For conservatives, this makes agood case for old-fashioned monogamy.Radicals may consider celibacy!