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Monday 1 November 2010

The Government and our sexual rights

OK, so no posts for a while, but as I currently seem to have no followers, I'm not so sure that this is an issue!
Anyway, I've started playing the very good game Nation States.  based on Max Berry's book Jennifer Government the idea is that you start a nation, and between 5 and 14 times a week (depending on user preferences) you get an issue, with two, three or more fanatical opinions. Which opinion you follow will cause a new law to that effect to be enacted in your country.

Some of the issues raised are really quite interesting, and have led to some good debates amongst myself and my friends, so I thought I'd share some of these here and see what people think.

This is an issue I got today, and is about sexual rights, and the rights - or otherwise - of governments to interfere in these issues rights.

The Issue
  • The highly moral and religious pressure group 'Cuckolds And Cuckqueans Anonymous' has lobbied for the criminalisation of adultery.
The Debate

  1. "Whatever happened to the sanctity of marriage?" asks Tobias Jones while wearing a T-shirt bearing the slogan 'Marriage is for life, not just for anniversaries'. "Whatever happened to lifelong companionship? Whatever happened to simple faithfulness because of love?! Adultery seems to be more of a hobby than anything these days! The government must impose the utmost punishments on those who commit this sin. A good old-fashioned stoning should sort it!"
  2. "I don't agree with adultery either," says Randy Li, a passer-by. "But, uh... stoning? You don't think that's a little extreme? If we find someone guilty of fornication we can just lock them up in jail. That way no-one gets killed and the sinners get justice. It's more expensive to the tax payers than a stoning of course, but I reckon it's worth it."
  3. "With the greatest of respect, this is none of your business!" yells Buffy Barry who is rumoured to have had more than a thousand lovers and even more children. "The government has no right to go about trying to dictate the laws of love and romance! Marriages break down, people move on - is it really the government's place to make people stay put? You must recognise the fact that the law has no place within the bedroom!"
OK, well these issue are supposed to be extreme, but is it just me who jumped at option 3?  Indeed, I felt that option 3 was not extreme enough!  I have always believed that once the bedroom doors close, the government can have no say on what happens.  Why is it  that until fairly recently, anal sex between a man and a woman was illegal?  Why is it that in the US state of Georgia, a man was imprisoned for five years for having oral sex with his wife, with her consent?  A 17-year-old boy was sentenced to 10 years in prison for receiving a blow-job at a party?

I have never believe in age-of consent laws.  Who can decide at what age a person can emotionally (and legally) consent to sex?  of those who waiting until the age of consent before having sex for the first time, for how many do you think the law was the main issue?  How many people, indeed, had sex under  the age of consent in their country?  The law do not act as a deterrent, nor are they enforced, so what is their point?

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