On Mon, 27 May 1996, Marisa Price wrote:

Everyone keeps telling me that Akane is too naive (in my L & L #8)

        a. Are you saying that with your current
           perspective on sex
        
        OR

        b. are you trying to think back to just
           exactly how you felt about sex at 
           age 16?

   Now I think of it, probably "a".
   (If I may say so, you seem a little upset about the whole deal.)

   I mean, I may have been REALLY more naive than most
   people at 16, but only about 1 person I knew had 
   sex by that age, and she was pretty loose. I mean,
   how many of you REALLY knew about sex at that age?

   Very few of us, I suspect. The fact that your acquaintance was so 
upfront about the fact she had done it probably is evidence of how much 
of a libertine she was. 

   As for comments like this one:

        >I think what they say is true, Akane is REALLY
        >naive! I mean, "It moved!" 
        >yeah, well that's like saying "You're wrist is
        >flexible!", get the idea? 
  
            (author deleteted because he is a cool guy and
             I am not trying to put down on him)
    

   Well, there was no need to be so blunt...(As I said, you seemed 
indignant and not a little upset here. This explains it.)

   OK- SURE SURE SURE that is an OBVIOUS thing....

                IF you are a GUY.

   I mean, how the heck are you supposed to know that if you
   are a 16 year old girl who has never seen a penis before?
   
        I'll tell you, it sure shocked the heck out of me
        when I first saw that guys could do that, and I
        had already HAD sex by then. I mean, I got the 
        basic idea, but you learn all kinds of cool things
        as you get better at it, ne ?

   I would also like to remind you all that girls (at least
   when I was a kid, I dunno about today) don't tend to sit
   around and shoot the crap about sex. We would giggle and
   talk about it, yeah, but guys tend to get a lot more...
   GRAPHIC in their discussions from what I have heard.

   I suppose it would depend on the circles one moved in. Trust me, I've 
sat in in college on feminine discussions that embarrassed me half to 
death... But in general you're probably right. The reason I was as 
embarrassed as I was was that women in my experience were far less blunt 
about it...
   I really don't think women come anywhere near men in the graphic 
department, though...

   Also, remember sex-ed? How much did YOU really learn about
   sex in that class?

   Very little beyond the pure mechanics. Very little that one really 
would like to know. 

   How much do you think Akane could have learned from her 
   family? Not a whole lot I would say.
                a. neither Kasumi or Nabiki have boyfriends
                   or (though we can never be sure about
                   Nabiki) have had sex.

   Nabiki would probably charge her for the info...:)

                b. Akane's mother died WAY WAY before she
                   could have told her anything.

   True.

                c. Soun: "WAHHH--- I can't let my baby know
                          about that!!!" 'nuff said

   Tee hee...(Besides, men aren't very good at explaining this stuff 
without sounding like total perverts. I really couldn't see Soun giving 
Akane "the talk" even if he wasn't an emotional wreck...)

                d. Can you see Kasumi telling Akane anything
                   about sex even as a mother-surrogate? 
                   Even if she did it would be very bland.

   In all probability.

  Also, please don't assume that all girls learn about their
  own body parts by masturbation.

  I don't think anyone even mentioned it, not on the ML, anyway. I for 
my part just thought she might be more familiar with her physical reactions. 
She _has_ seen Ranma before, you know, which almost certainly provoked a 
physical reaction of some sort (but then it might not have, I don't know 
enough about feminine reactions to such things). It's been conjectured 
that if she had _not_ gotten a reaction from seeing Ranma, she wouldn't 
have reacted to seeing him in the bathtub as violently as she did. If 
this is the case, she may well have found her reaction disturbing. After 
some more thought I am no longer so sure that she would not have found 
it disturbing this time.

                                  In my story, I chose to 
  have Akane not be into that, or even have considered it,
  because I see her as basically uncomfortable with her 
  body and sexuality... which is why she acts like a tomboy
  half the time.

   Which you had every right to do. (We know nothing of Akane's past 
behavior in this regard.) Yours is an extremely interesting 
interpretation of her character.

  Sorry...

   Why are you sorry? There's no need to be sorry.

           just my 2 cents worth.... and I really think that
  a lot of us are looking at sex with the eyes of maturity...
  please try and put yourself back and imagine what it would
  be like to be Akane.

   Which, if one is older (and a man!), is not entirely possible. But one 
can try... 

Paul Corrigan
budgie@insomnia3.dorms.utoledo.edu