garry@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Garry Wiegand) (02/07/88)
In a recent article rising@utzoo.uucp (Jim Rising) wrote: >To reiterate some points that have been made previously, but are still >being discussed, inasmuch as human females sometimes become pregnant >as a consequence of forced copulation, it is at least possible that this >behavior enhances the Darwinian fitness of the males who force copulations. Does anyone out there know if forced copulation *ever* occurs in nature among the higher vertebrates? (My thought is that if estrus is obvious in a given species, the female's probably feeling willing, and if estrus is not obvious then several/many copulations will probably be necessary to achieve pregnancy, and forcing things will probably make it hard to do the repeats.) I'm not blaming you specifically, Jim, but scientists have an extra duty to be careful how their words are taken when what seems like just a mental exercise intersects real people. If you say an argument is indeed "possible", it's only a short step to "reasonable" and then to "true". Things that doctors and scientists say (for example, about AIDS) often get real abused when heard by people with other mental habits. garry wiegand (garry@oak.cadif.cornell.edu - ARPA) (garry@crnlthry - BITNET)