In Albany Fraternization with Interns is Illegal

It happens time after time: one or two people fuck up and the rest of us have to pay.

As of May 2004 interns, legislators and staff may not legally fraternize. Of course, they grandfathered in existing relationships.

Talk about a chilling effect.

That rule-making sends the message that young women are unable to protect themselves from power-wielding men; that men are unable to control sexual desire or smart enough to know the difference between a woman and a girl.

Fact is some young women can protect themselves, some can't, some don't want or need to.

The key - as usual - lies not in rule-making but in education. Teach young women this: when a power-drunk horney man tries to get in your pants and you don't want him there simply laugh, hold his hand, and whispter in his ear with a great lot of sincerity, "Try that again and I shall break your fuckin' finger."

There are some young women who will not be damaged by a sexual encounter with an older, powerful man. Some young women are mature enough to deal and go with it not because of extreme coercion but because they enjoy sex or because they know the value of sex and spend its currency. Why take away choice? Because there is something in the male hierarchy that lives in fear of the day when women begin to spend their feminine currency with impunity.

On that day, women will rule the world.

I'm just saying.

- Watson, out