Right-wing Women

age. 13 (Italics mine)

The Hebrews wanted the perpetuation of male dominance. A male

child under nine did not have male status. Sex with that male child

did not count as a homosexual act. Maimonides takes it on himself

to remind the court that the child is male—though not male

enough to warrant the real protection provided by capital punishment as a deterrent, which is what the death sentence was in the Hebrew system. The rules governing judgments of guilt were so

strict in actual practice that it is unlikely that capital punishment

could have been invoked for private, consensual sexual acts of any

sort. It was the intrusion of sex into the larger society that concerned the Hebrews. A male child under nine, at any rate, did not warrant that protection because he was not yet part of the ruling

class of men.

Sim ilarly, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah shows that it is

essential to male power (to the power of men as a class) to protect

men from the sexual lust of other men— to protect men from

forced sex by putting women in their place. No legal piety interferes with protecting men from homosexual assault by other men (in the story of Sodom, homosexual gang rape). The story of

Sodom is meant to show that when the simple mechanical strategy

of using women, not men, as targets for nonconsensual sex breaks

down entirely, a patriarchal society w ill be destroyed. So God ordains; so the Old Testament describes: and it is an accurate assessment of the importance of keeping women the objects of forced sex so that men w ill not be subjected to it and need not fear it.

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah begins with a conversation

between God and Abraham: God says that “[b]ecause the cry of

Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know” (Genesis 18: 20-21). Abraham asks God if he will

destroy Sodom if there are fifty righteous men in the city. God

promises that if there are fifty, he w ill spare the city. Abraham,

after a few more interchanges, gets God to promise: “I w ill not

destroy it for ten’s sake” (Genesis 18: 32). Two angels go to Sodom,

where Lot bows down to them and offers them hospitality: safety

in his home, washing of the feet, unleavened bread:

But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men

of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young,

all the people from every quarter:

And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the

men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us,

that we may know them.

And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door

after him.

And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.

Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known

man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye

to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.

Genesis 19: 4 -8

The crowd, “both old and young, all the people from every quarter, ” attacked; the angels who appeared as men pulled Lot inside to save him, and “they smote the men that w ere at the door of the

house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied