Here's the possible evidence:

• Our tribal ancestors celebrated puberty rites for young boys. Taken away from their homes and the company of women, boys were subjected to various harsh, even brutal initiation rites. Often this involved sodomizing them. This implied, "See what's it's like to be a woman? Now, start acting like a man!"

• Sodomizing has long been part of initiation into a gang, including a youth gang. If a boy tries to break away, he risks others being told about this.

• Rape is rampant in our prisons. Peter Jennings did a series about it on "ABC News" in September, 2001. There is a scene about it in the 1980 Robert Redford film, "Brubaker". One problem is that 15% of boys under 18 are in adult prisons, prey of the men there.

• This is also a problem in "juviehall" (juvenile detention houses), with older boys preying on younger ones.

• It was the custom of our ancestors to renew the puberty rites describing above on hunting parties. There is a scene relating to this in the 1972 Burt Reynolds film, "Deliverance", with Ned Beatty sodomized by hunters. (This is also in the James Dickey novel on which the film was based.) We still retain so many ancient customs with us. Does this still happen in hunting parties?

• It has been emphasized over and over that rape of women is not a matter of "sex" but of violent control of women. And women have strived to counter the past attitude of "disgrace" turned towards a woman raped. But what women fail to realize and acknowledge is there is "double disgrace" for a boy who is raped: not only the slur of "asking for it", but that a boy must be homoerotically attractive -- something not blamed upon women.

• A decade or two ago, this risk of boys received little public and media discussion. Even today, it is usually spoken as "molesting", which could simply involve touching. The public and the media have still not faced up to this.

• Many women psychologists -- interviewing men in prison for rape -- have discovered that this raper was raped when a boy, and seems to be "getting back at the women who failed him when he was little".

Why don't more women give needed protection and support to boys?

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