Was Joseph Legueri really speaking for "most men," as he suggested in his June 29 column, "Let's acknowledge some things are inevitable and move on"? If so, nearly half the human race would seem to believe in the commercial commodity and purchase of female flesh for base entertainment and selfish pleasure.
The buying of humans for sexual satisfaction is the real point here, one that Legueri, in his sexually preoccupied mind, did not -- and, I suspect, cannot -- address.
Before writing his column, he might first have done some research, especially since he's an "educator," as he was identified in his tagline at the end. Just who are the women and girls who end up in the sex industry? Legueri might have discovered a large percentage of them were groomed to devalue their personhood and overvalue themselves as sex objects.
Statistics say one out of every three to four girls has been sexually assaulted by age 18. But only 1 percent to 10 percent of victims ever tell they were abused, according to the FBI and the National Institute for Mental Health.
According to UNICEF, the average age of entry into commercial sex in this country is 12 to 14. Many of these girls lived in homes where there was ongoing sexual abuse, homes that were virtual recruitment and indoctrination centers for the sex industry.
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Legueri also might have learned that when someone buys a woman he is really paying her pimp. The woman often lives a life of desperation, drug abuse and terror. If this were not true there would be no need for organizations like Breaking Free (breakingfree.net), which provides services to prostituted women and girls in the Twin Cities who have been victims of commercial sexual exploitation.
Did Legueri really think that by calling those who disagree with him "misandrists" he could distract intelligent readers from his blatant misogyny? Legueri stated most men "are constrained ... to seek sex." This insults men by inferring they are compelled, mindless animals with no powers of choice. Legueri compared men's seeking out of sex to the life-sustaining inevitability of beavers gnawing trees or horses walking.
When the "need arises" to purchase a prostituted woman or girl, I have several alternative ideas to help "put the fire out," as Legueri put it.
I'm sure those of us who believe in respectful, egalitarian relationships would love to hear from men who don't see themselves programmed as Legueri described.
Legueri must be really close to someone at the News Tribune to be granted print space for such a shallow, unenlightened and ego-saturated column.
Mary Jean Goulet is a licensed independent clinical social worker in private practice in Duluth.
