"I said that some would speak out despite negative consequences -- even if five percent spoke out we would hear a noise we do not hear."

If you think five percent of girls speaking up in such circumstances would be a low amount, you misunderstand both the power of shame and female psychology.

Faced with the prospect of being shamed, 5% would be a very high number to expect even from men, who typically have far less to lose from being shamed than women do. Men have always been more willing to take risks and hold unpopular opinions, and are more likely to have neurological conditions in which they simply blurt out the truth - but despite all this even men are careful to tread lightly in the presence of social condemnation. It is rare these days to get a man to even admit that 14 year old women are attractive, despite the fact that for most of human history most women of such an advanced age were already married. It is obviously true that most men find 14 year old women attractive, and yet you would find it difficult to get even 5% to admit it publicly. Men are less sensitive to public opinion than women, but after all they are not entirely immune.

Women have always been far more dependent on their reputation than men, far more sensitive to public opinion, and far less tolerant of risk than men. Despite this we can find hints, if you know where to look for them, that it is quite common for girls to be sexually attracted to older men. Not necessarily elderly men, of course, but fully mature men in their twenties or thirties. Girls and women are simply far more circumspect about what they say and how they say it. They are less likely than men to publicly acknowledge what they all know to be true, and they are even less likely than that to express the opinion that they would prefer to live in a society where they had more freedom to act on their desires. They know that the social penalties for women who step out of line are very, very high - and enforced ruthlessly by other women.

Even so, a few do speak out when they can be assured of anonymity.




Baldur