Gehrig Saldaņa
                             

04/20/08  El Dorado Reminds us of Women's Vulnerability.

The past few weeks have been very embarrassing for Texas.  Dallasites learned we had a 12 year old dancing naked in strip club that the city couldn't close for the offense.  Texans learned that girls as young as 15, and younger have been forced into "spiritual" marriages with middle age men (pedophiles) and turned into baby factories.

Our elected officials and government authorities stepped up to the plate, both locally and in El Dorado to fix the problems.  I'm proud of them for that.

In Council bans minors from strip clubs! , DallasArena.com covered our city council's quick and decisive action to resolve the matter of children dancing naked for strangers.  After I posted that commentary, I learned it was Councilman Rasansky who collected the signatures to get the matter on the council's agenda.

If there was any doubt about the seediness of the strip club industry, learning that a 12 year old was dancing naked for a bunch of low rent horn dogs put things in perspective for those who claim dancing naked is artistic expression.  Right!  Only Fed Judge Jerry Buchmeyer bought that, to the detriment of Dallas.  If you think that one 12 year old girl was the only minor dancing in a Dallas strip club, there's a Calatrava String Thing I'd like to sell you.  Because of that particular naked dancer, our city council has instituted regulations which will keep all minors out of "adult entertainment" operations.

"Adult entertainment" is an oxymoron.  I don't know any adults who frequent those places, certainly no mature adults.  What kind of a loser has to go pay money to see a naked woman?  Someone with really low self-esteem?  Must be a lot of them because there are a bunch of naked dancer clubs, and more coming in time for the Super Bowl.  At least there won't be any minors dancing or working in those clubs after Monday.

You think about those young girls and how they got into a state where they take their clothes off in front of strangers -- not to mention the other stuff that happened in the VIP rooms.  Did they wake up one morning and decide to ruin their lives that day?  Did someone push them into the life?  A boyfriend, an older person they trusted or feared, or a parent?

Which brings me to the El Dorado/Fundamentalist Church of Later Day Saints (FDLS).  Their lifestyle is as dehumanizing for everyone involved as is the strip club business.

When a mother or father can raise their daughters to be prepared for a life as a middle aged horn dog's concubine and baby factory, you have to wonder at what point did the parents go off the deep end? 

It's easy to understand how the men/fathers/pedophiles accept the situation.  If a man has several wives with multiple children by each one, he has limited relationships with any of the children.  If trading off one of your teenage daughters who you barely know to your neighbor gets you an exchange for one of his teenage virgin daughters to add to your stable, all the better.

The more female babies your brood mares produce, the more opportunity you have for new stuff a few years down the road. 

Texas does not recognize polygamy as a lawful marriage.  A FDLS husband's first wife might be a legal spouse, but the rest of the harem have no legal status or rights.  Their children might have some inheritance rights, but not without some legal action. 

The new CNN headline station (1190 AM) interviewed a couple of women who had been forced into "spiritual" marriages in the FDLS, but had been able to escape their situation and eventually got custody of their children.  One woman said she had been one of 22 wives of her former "spiritual" husband.  She talked about the ranking order of the wives and the hardship on the children if you were out of favor with your "husband".  The favored wives had the better houses.  Their children had better food and clothing and education.  She said the wives would spy on each other and report shortcomings to their "husband" so they could move up in the favored status.

Think about who you were at 12 or 13. Think about a 55 year old man forcing you to have unprotected sex that was going to certainly lead to a baby before your next birthday.  Think about your parents pushing you into that situation, rather than protecting you.  Think about your own daughter or niece or granddaughter of 13 or 14 being raped by a 55 year old man.  You would want him punished severely. 

Take a minute and read YFZ Ranch kids to stay in state custody by Karen Brooks (DallasNews.com, 4/19/8).  It will chill you to the bone.

It doesn't matter if there were only a handful of pregnant teenagers or teenagers with babies on the YFZ Ranch.  This state considers it illegal for an adult to have sex with a minor.  You can't say it was consensual, because a teenager does not have the legal right to consent to have sex with a middle age horn dog.  You can't say the parents consented to the marriage between a minor female and a middle age horn dog because these were not marriages.  The middle age horn dog cannot marry more than one woman, regardless of the female's age.  If the middle age horn dog already has one legal wife, any other females he bring to his bed are concubines and not wives.  No parent or legal guardian has the right to consent to a minor female becoming a concubine.

This is America, not Saudi Arabia, where women have no value other than their reproductive organs.  Western women take so much for granted.  We assume we will continue to progress toward equality.  That is a foolhardy assumption.  The only reason we can live somewhat independent lives is because of decent American men.  They provide the safety net that protects us from the horrors of the Yearning for Zion Ranch near El Dorado.

Without decent American men, women are vulnerable to the bullies, to the rapists. 

I've been a feminist since college.  I'm a Republican, but I'm pro-choice.  Yet, I know that I am safe to live my life, write my thoughts or do my job ONLY  because of decent American men who have made and will make my world safe for me. 

Following this YFZ Ranch story on the various blogs and radio talk shows, I find myself bouncing from alarmed to comforted then back to alarmed. 

Some wacko guys claim it was unconstitutional to interfere with the religious practices of a sect that forces teenage girls to have sex with middle age horn dogs.  Those guys alarm me.

I've heard no women defending teenage girls being forced to have sex with middle age horn dogs under the guise of a "spiritual" marriage.  There may have been some, but the ones I heard and read were supportive of removing those children from a lifestyle where girls and women were reduced to brood mares.  That gave me comfort.

I've read the blogs of some liberals who can't see the forest for the trees, who saw the state authorities entering that compound to rescue those pregnant girls and teenage mothers as some kind of infringement on the horn dogs' rights, that enforcing state laws was somehow a bad thing.  That alarms me because those same people would ordinarily claim to be supportive of women's rights.

I've heard and read more comments from those decent American men that I love and appreciate who see the situation for what it is.  The men condemning the exploitation of young girls at the YFZ Ranch evil doings are the same men who make our society livable for everyone, regardless of our physical strength or social standing.  They are the men who truly like and love women.

Men who truly like and love women aren't threatened by us.  They don't need to dominate us.  They just see us as their friends and lovers and know we have our own strengths and value.

Men who truly like and love women don't go to topless bars or strip clubs.  They would be embarrassed to be seen coming or going from one of those places. 

Men who truly like and love women don't need to be with a teenager to feel manly.  They don't even need to be with a bunch of different women.

Without men who truly like and love women, life as we know it for Western women and American women in particular would cease to exist.  In less than a generation, we could all be like those female zombies we are seeing from the YFZ Ranch. 

We are shocked that this stuff is going on in Texas.  It is a way of life for women in Saudi Arabia.

We are shocked that a 12 year old was dancing naked at a strip club in Dallas, but there are lots of pregnant 12 year olds who show up at Parkland every year. 

We need to get over the shock and be vigilant. 

When one human being is reduced to a sexual outlet, we are all diminished.

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