[Mrs. Don-o]

"Many seem to take the position that heterosexual sins, including sodomy, are “merely” bad, while homosexual activity is “really most sincerely” bad."

What an astute observation. I actually came back and looked this up again, just because I admired the phrasing so much. I'm stealin' it, Dorothy.

[Tax-chick]

Help yourself!

The phrase came to mind when we were discussing whether young Bill was “merely” sick - planning to spend the day sitting around the dining room in his pajamas, blowing his nose - or “really most sincerely” sick - not going to get out of bed at all.

[Tax-chick]

I was thinking about this today in light of the story in Genesis about Lot, and a roughly parallel story in Judges about a Levite's concubine. In both cases, when men are threatened with sexual assault, women - virgins - are proposed to the rapists instead. (The Levite's concubine was actually sacrificed and died.)There's a suggestion that, when these things are done to women, it doesn't matter very much. It's not as if they're men or anything.

Perhaps it has to do with men's disinclination to be the objects of penetration. The horror with which most men regard being the objects of oral or anal sex contradicts dramatically with their eagerness to perform these acts on women. It's as if they believe women are a lower order of humanity.