Celestial Reviews 173 - April 16, 1997

Note:  I'm finally catching up on some stories that I received at a time 
when I was experiencing technical difficulties.  If I review your story, 
you may want to repost it, so that readers can find it more easily.  If 
you have trouble finding a story, try www.dejanews.com.  Also, if you 
sent me a story and I failed to review it, send me a reminder.  I 
probably still have the story, but I need you to nudge me to dig it out. 

Second Note: Remember: even though someone else may be posting my 
stories for me, my e-mail address is still Celeste801@aol.com.

- Celeste

      "Chocolate Kisses" by Ashley (chocolate incest) 9, 7, 7
      "My Birthday Present" by Insomnia (strip search & threesome) 
            9, 9, 9
      "The O'Stikkit Inn" by Mike Hunt (sex in the swimming pool)
            10, 10, 10
      "The One-Room Schoolhouse in the Middle of the Prairie" by
            [Name Removed 2006-02-16] (double whammy) 10, 9, 10
      "Box Office" by CobaltJade (sex slavery) 10, 10, 10
      "A Summer Romance" by Jim Fix (emerging adolescence)
            10, 10, 10
      "Twins" by IRA (pregnancy) 9, 8, 8
      "Susan" by DaVinci (one nighter) 7, 8, 8
      "Down by the Tracks" by Dulcinea (outdoor sex) 10, 10, 10
      "Mowing the Lawn" by OddManOut Anywhere (applied sex
            education) 10, 9, 9
      "For Her" by Unknown Author (very hot mf sex) 10, 10, 10
      "Moments of Gold" by Rayv and Jvstin (meeting the cyberlover)
            9, 9, 9
      "The Last Man on Earth" by Night Writer (science fiction)
            10, 9, 9
    * "Slippery When Wet" by SueNH (boiling hot jacuzzi sex) 
            10, 10, 10
    * "At the Pool" by Mark Aster (swimming pool sex) 
            10, 10, 10
    * "Brenda's Conquest" by Tom Bombadil (emerging
            adolescence & romance) 10, 10, 10

* = Repost of a previous review (because the story has 
      recently been reposted)

"Chocolate Kisses" by Ashley (ashley@cythera.com).  The story is 
supposed to be a narrative by a 16-year-old, describing her sexual 
experiences with her father.  The old guy has bought her a candy cock, 
so that she can practice giving head without using her teeth.  Ashley 
tells how she gets turned on while playing with her phallus and her 
father, and she also describes some of the things she imagines while she 
does her thing.  It's an interesting and somewhat sexy story, but it 
just doesn't quite ring true.

Ratings for "Chocolate Kisses"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 7
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 7

"My Birthday Present" by Insomnia (insomnia@bigfoot.com).  For his 
birthday present the girlfriend allows the narrator to strip search 
herself and her friend.  The activities get pretty hot and result in 
threeway action that includes anal sex.  Not a bad story!

Ratings for "My Birthday Present"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9

"The O'Stikkit Inn" by Mike Hunt (M1KE HUNT@aol.com).  I'll bet you 
wouldn't notice this on your own; so I'll tell you.  If you read the 
title " O'Stikkit Inn" by Mike Hunt out loud, it could be mistaken for 
an imperative sentence giving directions during foreplay.  Imagine that.

This is a VERY hot story.  As an example of sex in the swimming pool, it 
rivals "Slippery When Wet" by SueNH.  As I said in my review of Sue's 
story, I can't do it justice by trying to summarize it - It's about a 
man and a woman who meet a guy in the bar and then get into the hotel's 
swimming pool after closing time.  Read the story for the rest.  As I 
said, it's really hot stuff.

Ratings for "The O'Stikkit Inn"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

"The One-Room Schoolhouse in the Middle of the Prairie" by Thomas-Paz 
Hartman (tph7@columbia.edu).  Jim Harbo is a student having a sex 
fantasy about his teacher, Keesha Jackson.  Or maybe Keesha Jackson is a 
student having a sex fantasy about her teacher, Jim Harbo.  Or maybe Jim 
Harbo is a teacher having a sex fantasy about his student, Keesha 
Jackson.  Whatever.... Somebody either in real life or in fantasy life 
is a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse with a sexually enticing student 
who needs to be punished and who enjoys the spanking or does not enjoy 
the spanking -  or at least someone is putting something over on someone 
else and at least one person is getting sexually aroused.  Probably.  
This story is to be continued.  Maybe.

Ratings for "The One-Room Schoolhouse"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

"Box Office" by CobaltJade (cobaltjade@aol.com).  I try to set aside my 
personal preferences when I review these stories.  In the present case, 
I would NOT like to experience the activities that this woman 
experiences, but I have to admit that this is a well-written creative 
story.  In a weird way I enjoyed the story very much.

The story is about sex slavery.  The woman enjoys bdsm games, and she 
volunteers to be sold into slavery.  She gets more than she bargained 
for.  The title is a perfect description of her final role in the story.  
I promise you that you'll be unable to guess the meaning of this title 
until you get to the very end of the story.

Ratings for "Box Office"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

"A Summer Romance" by Jim Fix (jimfix@earthlink.net).  This was actually 
posted as two separate stories: "A Summer Romance Part 1" and "Summer 
Romance Revisited."  I shall review these as a single story, and I 
advise you to read both parts together.

Paul (a bright student going into his sophomore year in high school) and 
his Mom have been living together since her messy divorce from his Dad 
two years ago.  Paul and his mother have always showed mutual affection, 
but during a stay at some relatives' mountain cabin they realize that 
their attraction has a physical and sexual component.  With his mature 
consent, Mom decides to treat Paul as a lover, and their life together 
becomes happier.  They each contribute to the other's intellectual and 
personal growth, as well as to each other's sexual happiness.

The second half of the story moves more rapidly than the first half.  
Life changes; Paul goes to college; Mom gets a new job; their love 
affair comes to an end; Mom remarries; and Paul falls in love.  This is 
a very good story.

I think society's general taboo against incest is reasonable; that is, 
it makes sense to have an initial reaction that incestuous relations 
should be avoided.  In general, incestuous relationships are likely to 
be coercive and exploitive, even though the participants may be unaware 
that something bad is happening.  Nevertheless, it also makes sense to 
consider the possibility that such relationships could be productive and 
growth-producing.  This author has gone to great lengths to build a good 
story around a set of circumstances in which a mother/son sexual 
relationship is not only harmless but also beautiful.

You can skip the rest of this review if moral reasoning doesn't interest 
you, but I am going to discuss morality for a few paragraphs.  Religions 
generally condemn incest, and I (Celeste) am an active participant in 
the Catholic religion, whose leaders condemn incest.  How do I reconcile 
these views?  Why don't I either condemn incest or stop being a Catholic 
Christian?

The answer lies in proportionalist moral reasoning, which says that when 
there is a conflict between moral outcomes or goals, decisions must be 
based on proportionate consequences.  An action that might objectively 
be undesirable (immoral) is permitted only if it leads to benefits 
(called values) that outweigh its ill effects (called disvalues).  The 
Catholic Church and other religions have used this kind of reasoning for 
centuries (for example, with regard to the "just war theory") but the 
Church leaders are not exactly progressive with regard to sexual 
morality.

The main alternative to proportionalist reasoning in the Christian 
religions is natural law reasoning.  Here's the difference.  Assume that 
there is a soldier who has his army's secret plans in a pouch attached 
to his belt.  When he is in danger of being caught, is it morally 
permissible for the soldier to ignite an explosive that will destroy the 
plans but also kill himself?  Moral reasoning based on the natural law 
says yes - because the soldier would be destroying the plans directly 
and himself only indirectly.  In other words, this is not really 
suicide.  Proportionalist reasoning would also say yes - but because the 
value of saving the entire army outweighs the disvalue of the soldier 
killing himself. In other words, this is suicide, but it's justified.

Changing the situation slightly, what if the soldier had memorized the 
plans instead of having them in a pouch?  Can the soldier kill himself 
if he suspects that his captors will get the secrets from him?  Natural 
law reasoning would say no - because he would be killing himself 
directly and destroying the secrets only indirectly.  This would be 
suicide, and nothing can justify suicide.  Proportionalist reasoning 
would still say yes - again because the value of saving the entire army 
outweighs the disvalue of the soldier killing himself.  Again, this is 
suicide, but it's justified.  My opinion is that the natural law 
conclusion is just plain goofy.

This proportionalist reasoning is not all that complicated, and it makes 
perfect sense.  Common sense tells me that it would be unfortunate for 
the soldier to be put in either situation, but I don't think he would be 
"sinning" in either case if he took his life to save his army.  On the 
other hand, the soldier should consider other factors - such as how well 
he can withstand torture, the likelihood that the enemy will get the 
information from someone else, the actual value of the information, etc.  
All this information would enter into the soldier's moral reasoning to 
determine whether there is a proportional reason for taking his own life 
in either case.

Applied to an issue like incest, proportionalism means that we should 
weigh the possible values to be gained from incest (such as the 
possibility of a mutually fulfilling relationship that is a natural 
extension of an existing spontaneous relationship and which would 
release two people's tensions while getting them ready for other 
relationships) against the disvalues associated with that action (such 
as restricting the child from more age-appropriate relationships, giving 
birth to children that are likely to have genetic defects, and societal 
retribution).  In most cases in real life, the disvalues would far 
outweigh the values; but in this story the values outweigh the losses.  
This reasoning is different from the traditional, more legalistic 
approaches, which focuses on whether the action is natural or unnatural 
- prohibited by a rule or not prohibited; but this type of reasoning is 
neither excessively complex nor illogical.

There is no reason to believe that Jesus would reject proportionalist 
reasoning.  There IS reason to believe that in most cases in real life 
the disvalues will outweigh the values, and so society's general ban on 
incestuous activities makes sense - as long the taboo itself does not 
introduce more problems than it solves.  In terms of moral reasoning, 
what this story has done has been to create a situation in which the 
values demonstrably outweigh the disvalues.

My personal reasoning is also different from that of hedonism, which 
essentially says if it feels good and hurts nobody, go ahead and do it.  
Both hedonism and traditional religions offer valid insights into 
incestuous behavior; proportionalism offers another angle.

So there!  I hope this discussion makes as much sense to you as it does 
to me.  I do NOT believe that it is necessary that every story describe 
purely moral behavior, but I do think it is good occasionally to discuss 
a story in its moral context.

Ratings for "A Summer Romance"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

"Twins" by IRA (Fun@Americanstyle.com).  This story imitates a clinical 
case study written by a marriage counselor.  The woman had insipid sex 
with her husband, then hot sex with the (African American) delivery man.  
When the woman gives birth to twins, her husband becomes suspicious 
since one baby is white and the other black.  The doctor tells them that 
perhaps this is because they each had an ancestor who might have been 
black.  The man accepts this reasoning, and thereafter he works harder 
at his marriage.  They live happily ever after.

This story suggests that the skin color of the black baby is essentially 
a matter of a double recessive gene, like eye color.  It just doesn't 
work that way.  Other than that significant mistake, this is a nice 
story.

Ratings for "Twins"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8

"Susan" by DaVinci (rmbte1@ix.netcom.com).  Rick meets Susan, discusses 
literature and art with her, then takes her home to her house.  Susan 
really needs her confidence boosted, and Rick helps out in several ways, 
mostly by fucking her brains out.  Some of the grammatical structure is 
awkward, but this is a pretty good story.

Ratings for "Susan"
Athena (technical quality): 7
Venus (plot & character): 8
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 8

"Baywatch Story 1: Caroline Holden" by SJ Bedden (sjb@easynett.co.uk).  
"Baywatch" is an exciting television show that suffers from unfair 
criticism from what a great American leader referred to as "an effete 
corps of intellectual snobs."  Each week (or every day on cable) the 
brave men and women of Baywatch save lives and bring joy and happiness 
to the small corner of the world known as Venice Beach.  Jay Leno 
recently noted that scientists have discovered salt water on one of the 
moons of Jupiter.  Said Leno, "If salt water is a prerequisite for 
intelligent life, then how do you explain Baywatch?"  Actually, Leno was 
suffering from a logical fallacy known as the undistributed middle or 
some such thing; but the point here is that one should not hastily 
conclude that these sexy babes are all airheads or that David Hasselhof 
can't sing.

This story approaches the Bay heroes and heroines in the same spirit: 
"They all had perfect bodies, and from their tight swimsuits I could 
tell that they were pretty well endowed elsewhere too."  Just ponder 
that sentence!  By contemplating the swimsuit of, say, Pamela Anderson, 
it is possible to determine that Pamela is pretty well endowed 
"elsewhere" too.  Where else could that "elsewhere" be, except in the 
mind or the soul?  Anyway, once I knew the narrator of this story would 
"were" a similar swimsuit, I knew I was in for more than mere sexual 
titillation.  Nevertheless, I went on with the story.

Some of the details in this story are as surprising as they are 
stimulating.  For example, within only a few hours CJ is able to find 
out the phone number of the narrator, whose bushy hairs jut out 
prominently beyond the red fabric of the sides of her swimming suit.

The story contains many revealing details, such as the fact that the 
typical lifeguard has at least a 10-inch cock but is surprised to 
discover this (unless that was a bad pronoun reference).  Also, female 
lifeguards sometimes give head to male lifeguards while they drive their 
vehicles across crowded beaches, but no one gets hurt, usually - at 
least not unless they hit a bump and her teeth snap shut or something 
like that.

Instead of saving lives, in today's episode Caroline lies on the beach 
and sleeps until Ryan comes down from the tower and rubs suntan lotion 
on her while she grinds her ass into his erection.  Actually, I guess 
they WERE saving lives - at least she wasn't giving head in a moving 
vehicle on a crowded beach anymore!  When Ryan takes a break, the three 
studs on the beach come up to Caroline and ask if they can please have 
sex with her.  She replies, ""You guys are asking to fuck me, just like 
that. Do I look like some kind of slut or what?"  Then she has sex with 
them.  Afterwards, the boys are knackered and lie on the floor panting.  
That's a British expression, I think: in America we refer to the sandy 
area where lifeguards have sex as a "beach."

In spite of its clever use of technical terms like "big cock," "juicy 
spunk," and even "thick white cum," the story lacks realism and what 
technical people refer to as a "plot."  However, this story certainly 
does have a lot of pointless sex in a quasi-literate context, and so 
this might appeal to some Baywatch enthusiasts or to people who are 
interested in getting vicarious sex without having to think too much.  
There's a second episode, entitled " Baywatch story 2: Gena's Story," 
but I think I'll skip that one.

This review sounds like it was written by an envious English teacher.

Ratings for "Baywatch Story"
Athena (technical quality): 6
Venus (plot & character): 5
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 5

"Down by the Tracks" by Dulcinea (ImDulcinea@aol.com).  The picnic has 
been romantic, and who said sex needed to intrude on every romantic 
venture?  Well, the guidelines of this newsgroup, for one!  Since she 
loves trains, they have been having a picnic near the train tracks.  
About the time the train is scheduled to pass, the husband begins to 
make love to his wife and manages to climax just as the train is passing 
ten feet away on the other side of the bushes.  The earth DID move!  It 
turns out she likes boats too.

Ratings for "Down by the Tracks"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

"Mowing the Lawn" by OddManOut Anywhere (oddman0ut@hotmail.com).  The 
guy hates to mow the lawn.  When his own lawnmower breaks down, he 
borrows his neighbors'.  When he returns it, he discovers that the 
neighbors' sexy 17-year-old daughter is down in the dumps because no 
boys find her attractive.  She's a track star and is in great shape, but 
she's shy and sexually inexperienced.  Drawing on his own expertise from 
20 years earlier, he gives her some really good advice, explaining that 
the boys actually find her extremely attractive but are reluctant to 
risk talking to her for fear of rejection.  She appreciates the advice 
and then asks him to help her learn to kiss and make out.  He complies - 
after all, they did loan him the lawnmower.  Katie learns the basic 
skills of sexual foreplay, and Brad doesn't hate to mow the lawn 
anymore.

Ratings for "Mowing the Lawn"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9

"For Her" by Unknown Author (THC Archives).  This was reposted as 
"Looker 1" by the THC Archives.  It's not a full story - just a brief 
interlude about two people in love, fucking each other's brains out.  
It's extremely hot and well written - kind of like Dulcinea in heat.  If 
anyone knows anything about the identity of this author, I would 
certainly like to hear from you.  There's also a "Looker 2 (Night 
Breezes )" and "Looker 3 (Role Reversal)," which I plan to review soon.

Ratings for "For Her"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

"Moments of Gold" by Rayv and Jvstin (jvstin@admin.con2.com).  Elizabeth 
and Jason have won a contest that took two people who have corresponded 
by e-mail but not in real life and sent them BOTH on a trip together in 
London.  They have already hit it off nicely in cyberspace, and they 
find that they are even more compatible in person, as they act out their 
sexual fantasies in London.  This is a very good story - probably the 
sort of thing that many readers of this newsgroup incorporate into their 
own fantasy lives.

Ratings for "Moments of Gold"
Athena (technical quality): 9
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9

"The Last Man on Earth" by Night Writer (A+ Story).  Not only has there 
been a nuclear cataclysm, but there has also been a Plague, which has 
destroyed all the men on the earth - all but one, that is.  Now that man 
has returned to Estrogen City, where he has been captured by Arachne and 
her leader Mrs. Ippy.  The world is ruled by lesbians.  Will the 
heterosexual forces arise and come to John's assistance and somehow 
restore sex between men and women to its rightful and lustful place in 
the World Order?  Will John Doe make a contribution to repopulating the 
entire world with males?  Stay tuned for next week's exciting adventure.

Although I would have liked a more completely developed plot, this was 
still a good story.  I suspect that somewhere in cyberspace there are 
other episodes of "The Last man on Earth."  

I don't want to ruin the ending, but Mrs. Ippy is a closet heterosexual.  

Ratings for "The Last Man on Earth"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 9
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 9

* "Slippery When Wet" by SueNH.  This was one of the first stories I 
reviewed.  It sort of got me started in this business.  Here's the 
original review.  I hope Sue reposts the story so that you can read it.

I was going to read this story late at night and write the review right 
away, but after a story like that I have to take a break and visit my 
husband.  He's going to wake up with one hot mouth around his cock!  
This was a truly erotic story.  I can't do it justice by trying to 
summarize it - It's about a girl and a guy who get into the fitness 
center jacuzzi after closing time.  Read the story for the details.

The only part that I didn't like at first was when they let the three 
college kids join them in the jacuzzi.  Actually, I liked that part too; 
but except for that part, I'd be ecstatic for a chance to do exactly 
what the two of them did.  Sue has one of the best disclaimer's of all 
the a.s.s. writers: "Reading and writing these stories should be acts of 
fantasy, and I hope that you can keep your notions of real and fantasy 
life separate in your mind. I know I can."  And so can I!

Ratings for "Slippery When Wet"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

* "At the Pool" by Mark Aster (MyFrThAl@aol.com).  Sometimes I 
suspect that the plots for some of these stories are not very 
realistic.  Take this one, for example.  Do you think that a guy 
in his middle twenties would really go to a swimming pool and 
relax with his pregnant girlfriend at his side and lust after a 
high school girl with shapely tits and a nice ass and legs that 
won't quit who is serving her community as a lifeguard?  And if 
the couple did go to the pool together and if the guy really did 
feel horny whenever he looked at the lifeguard and if he did 
express his fantasies about this young lady to his girlfriend, do 
you think she would really find it interesting to borrow the 
lifeguard's swimsuit and arrange to be alone in the pool with the 
guy after closing time?  And even if she did do this, do you think 
the guy would actually get really turned on by the fantasy of 
making it with this cute little lass while he was really driving 
his throbbing cock underwater into the pulsating pussy of the lady 
who will bear his child?  Do you find this as repulsive as I do?  
And anyway, how could you get the girl to loan you her swimsuit 
and let you into the pool - except, perhaps, by telling her what 
you plan to do and telling her that she can watch.

Ratings for "At the Pool
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10

* "Brenda's Conquest" by Tom Bombadil (stbush@iglou.com).  This is 
a story about an older man who falls in love with a 13-year-old 
girl with whom he has been familiar since she was nine.  In 
addition, the girl's 11-year-old sister develops a sexual 
relationship with his own 17-year-old sister.  There's a lot more 
to the story than this, but I am not going to go into the details 
here.  All I'll say here is that it's a rich, well-developed story 
that presents a reasonable perspective on the problems as well as 
of the joys of such a relationship.

The author himself refers to this as a "pedophile love story."  
Interestingly, my on-line dictionary does not define pedophile or 
pedophilia.  It goes straight from pedometer to peduncle.  Go 
figure.  However, my on-line encyclopedia does have an article on 
the topic, which says this:

"Pedophilia is a psychosexual disorder characterized by a sexual 
desire for and sexual acts with prepubescent children.  Onset of 
the disorder can occur from adolescence through old age, and it 
occurs predominantly in males.  About two-thirds of pedophiliacs 
are attracted to children of the opposite sex.  Based on evidence 
from criminal court records, pedophiles usually know the children 
that they abuse.  Most pedophiles resort to deception rather than 
force. Although much is known about pedophilia, pedophiles 
themselves are difficult to treat and recidivism rates are high."

In the present story, the "pedophile" doesn't actually do what my 
encyclopedia says pedophiles do; he simply develops a consensual 
relationship with a thirteen-year-old whom he has known for 
several years.  You will note that although the author himself 
describes this as a pedophile love story, I myself have referred 
to it as a story of emerging adolescence and romance.

Nonetheless, it is important to realize that this story deals with 
a topic that sets of alarms in the minds of people who are 
concerned about children being harmed by pornography on the 
Internet.  As a teacher in an American public school, I am 
supposed to call to the attention of the legal authorities 
behavior that is typically labeled pedophilia, if I become aware 
of it.  That's the rules, folks; and I could get into trouble for 
not following them.  I hasten to add that I am NOT a member of the 
Thought Police.  I work with a large number of troubled 
adolescents, and I HAVE worked with the authorities in cases that 
they refer to as pedophilia.  In no case that I have witnessed has 
the relationship been like that described in this story.  Every 
case I have ever seen has revealed children who had their lives 
screwed up by an exploitive adult.

The notion of falling in love with an innocent and precocious 
young person is intuitively appealing.  This story idealizes that 
intuitive appeal.  

It seems reasonable that society can differentiate between 
exploitive sex with children (which is vividly described in 
Michael K. Smith's "Remembering") and emotionally sensitive 
relationships like those described in this story.  It is my own 
belief that most children are best advised to reach a reasonable 
level of maturity before becoming sexually active and that many 
adults who become sexually active with children are likely to be 
satisfying their own (perhaps unconscious) needs rather than being 
helpful to the children.  In addition, a very large number of 
psychologists seem to agree with my belief, and the laws of most 
countries in Western society support my position.

On the other hand, stories like this one are realistic 
presentations of emotions and feelings.  My hope is that 
reasonable people can set aside their biases, read this as the 
good story it is, and perhaps let the insights they get from this 
story influence their thinking about the issues involved.  Many 
people will read this story to get some good ideas on how to 
seduce little kids or will reject it out of hand because it is 
about something that is immoral.  Both groups will waste a 
perfectly good story.

This story raises a simple question: is it possible to write a 
story in which an adult has sexual relations with a young 
adolescent in a way that would be approved by reasonable, socially 
responsible people?  I think this story (along with several 
others, including Randu's "Double Trouble" and Santo Romeo's 
"Martha Jane") demonstrate that the answer is yes.  The related 
(and more volatile) question is can this happen in real life?  The 
answer certainly must be yes, it CAN happen.  The crucial question 
is DOES it happen?  Or are all adults who do this sexual perverts, 
as most laws seem to suggest?  

As I have said earlier, literally all the young children whom I 
have known to have experienced sex with an adult were severely 
exploited.  It may not always be accurate to call their partners 
perverts; "sick" or "dysfunctional" may be better words for some 
of them.  But - and this is an important BUT - kids who have had 
perfectly adaptive - even wonderful - relationships like those 
described in this story would have no incentive to come forth and 
talk to me about it.  In fact, if they did so, the adults whom 
they loved would possibly suffer dire consequences.  I seriously 
doubt that all adult-child sexual relationships are as destructive 
as some child advocacy people would have us believe; but I also 
think that most real-life adult-child sexual relationships are 
exploitive.

I cannot conclude without mentioning one important issue.  I think 
we need to let kids be kids.  In recent years movies and TV shows 
(especially the soaps) have combined with peer pressure to urge 
kids to rush into adulthood way too fast.  An important part of 
the mother's logic in this story was that if Brenda didn't have 
sexual relations with Richard, she'd be having sex with someone 
else real soon.  To the extent that her insight is accurate, her 
decision to permit sex with Richard may be valid.  But might it 
not be better to find a way to encourage kids to grow up before 
they have sexual relations? As I understand it, something like 25-
40% of kids in the Western world don't have sex until they are at 
least 18 years old.  Granted, a bunch of these people have major 
hang-ups; but statistically they're OK people.  If I may use 
myself as a case study, I think I really do all right sexually, 
even though I had a full childhood before I began my active sex 
life; and I THINK the same can be said of my daughters.  Sexuality 
isn't the only area in which we tend to push kids too fast; I 
constantly see parents trying to push preschoolers into academic 
programs when they should be playing games or reading Little Red 
Riding Hood.  Ooops!  {For an explanation of this Ooops, see the 
review of "The Better To...." later in this issue.}  Let's let 
kids be kids!

I like stories that raise thought-provoking questions in 
interesting contexts.  This story does exactly that.

Ratings for "Brenda's Conquest"
Athena (technical quality): 10
Venus (plot & character): 10
Celeste (appeal to reviewer): 10


