On What Akin Said

Perhaps he was thinking of vaginismus,a condition where penetration can become virtually impossible.

If he was, his understanding is still poor. The condition could be psychosomatic – the physical manifestation of a mental trauma – or not. There are degrees of severity. It is unpredictable.

So yes, Akin's understanding of the female body is less than most. A larger issue is the idea that a woman who becomes pregnant during non-consensual sexual intercourse must not have been raped.

But what if the motive for the rape was pregnancy? We are depraved enough as a species to use sex as a weapon. Do you think it beyond our capacity to use pregnancy to inflict pain? To attempt to use life as a means of destruction?

Another issue, brought up during all the hoopla, is the concept of "forcible" rape. It suggests that if force was not involved, rape did not occur. Someone slip you a date rape drug and had sex with you while you were unconscious? Perhaps you got so drunk you passed out and became a sex doll for a cadre of men and boys.

You were not conscious to say no, to fight back. Some would say you were not forced. Some would argue you were not raped.

I wonder. If the victims in such circumstances were boys or men, would the matter of force even be questioned?