Well, yeah.

It's not fair to moan about the sexualization of a young woman and then print lusty images of a young man. A minor is a minor is a minor.

But.

Here are my thoughts: We live in a world in which young women are sexualized way before young men. Suri Cruise is wearing heels; Catholic schoolgirls are seen as "jailbait"; countries have child brides; there are "Lolita" fashion trends. This civilization has a consistent history of the male gaze focused on underaged girls. Intellectually, I understand that young women are not weak, potential victims in need of our protection. Society's obsession with keeping girls from growing up too fast — from denouncing Slutoween to holding purity balls — can be grating. But for me, there is a difference between Miley Cyrus with tousled hair in a bedsheet and Taylor Lautner shirtless: You can see shirtless young men anywhere — playing basketball, at the beach. A 15-year-old, seemingly without a top on, in bed? That's taking it a step further.

Of course, I'll be the first to admit that my views are skewed after working at a teen magazine for 7 years. As part of my job description, I had to assess if one 15-year-old boy was "hotter" than another, and find the "cutest" pictures of then-under-21-year-olds like Justin Timberlake, Rupert Grint and Prince Harry. It didn't seem creepy at the time, as it wasn't about sex, but about drawing on my own experiences and memories, tapping into my inner teenage girl. We were using headshots, focusing on smiles and eyes and dreamy stuff like that. And yeah, I am going to rationalize this until the day I die, because, dammit, cute boys are cute! Okay, okay: Taylor Lautner is hot. There's definitely sex appeal there. Sue me. Would it be creepy if I were a man choosing images of underaged girls? Probably. Is that fair? Nope. Welcome to the world.

Taylor Lautner's Shirtless Pics: A Hollywood Double Standard? [Yahoo Movies]

As mentioned last week, a study has shown that while the normal ratio of boys to girls born in the US is 1.05 to 1, the ratio among Chinese-American, Indian-American, and Korean-American births increases to 1.17 to 1 if the first child is a girl, and a full 1.5 to 1 if the family already has two girls. This means some families are using some sort of sex selection — either IVF, sperm sorting, or abortion, to guarantee a boy if they are already parents to girls.

Joyce Moy, executive director of the Asian American/Asian Research Institute of the City University of New York, explains the cultural preference for boys: "Inheritance in the old country is carried through the male line. Families depend on the male child for support." Angie and Rick, a Chinese-American couple interviewed by the Times, offer a firsthand perspective. After they had their daughter and Angie became pregnant with another girl, they considered abortion. Her next pregnancy resulted in a son, but she says, "If the third one was going to be a girl, then I would say probably I would have terminated." Another Chinese-American mom gave the Times her take on cultural pressures:

I have two daughters and am married to an only child. Early on, after the two girls were born and another two years went by and there was not a third, I found myself in the living room with four or five older relatives in a discussion of ‘Wouldn't it be lovely for you to have a boy?' It's extremely uncomfortable.

One gynecologist says she tries to discourage sex-selection, but another doctor, Jeffrey Steinberg, is more tolerant. Steinberg's clinic doesn't offer abortions, but does perform other sex-selective procedures. He says,

The patients come in and they all think they owe me an excuse, but the bottom line is it's cultural. [...] Culturally, there are a lot of strange things that go on in the world. Whether we agree with it, it's not harming anyone.

Obviously, this is the question. Condemning a practice that takes place mainly within immigrant communities always carries the danger of engaging in racism. Steinberg's comment that "culturally, there are a lot of strange things," while not actually racist, seems to reduce sex-selection from a practice with deeply ingrained economic and social roots to some kind of kooky custom. There's a danger, too, in thinking that "those people" are the only ones "backward" enough to consider sex-selection — in fact, another doctor told the Times that most Americans seeking the practice want girls, which could create its own whole set of problems. And of course sex-selection is far from the only form of sexism in the world — plenty of other forms are routinely practiced by white, non-immigrant Americans.

Still, sex-selection is a form of sexism, and one that needs to be addressed wherever it occurs. It's tempting to ask doctors and women's health groups to counsel against the practice, but efforts to forcibly change cultural norms from the outside are rarely successful. And it's hard to imagine a law against sex-selective abortion that wouldn't infringe on a woman's right to choose in other ways — after all, it's hard to prove that a woman is terminating her pregnancy because she's carrying a girl. Rather, as has been said before, the answer may lie in improving the lives of women and girls. Sam Roberts of the Times says, "some of the historic underlying reasons for the preference [for boys] are less relevant here than in China, Korea and India." But some, like the fact that men make more money and enjoy more opportunities and fewer strictures, are very relevant here — and these are things we can and should change.

U.S. Births Hint at Bias for Boys in Some Asians [New York Times]

Earlier: Will A New Prenatal Gender Test Lead To Sex-Selective Abortion?

In the Times of London today, writer Caitlin Moran claims that while men love discussion music trivia in a "some secret nerd-battle", women, on the other hand, "prove that they love a song by either screaming: 'I love this song!' and getting up and dancing to it, or wailing: 'I love this song!' and bursting into tears."

Continues Ms. Moran:

Women make jokes about the band's hair, drink a shot of tequila for each time Rihanna sings the word "umbrella," and work out in which order they would have sex with the band lineup... That is, quite obviously, the more pure response to music. After all, no bands form with the dream of being speccily rowed over by trainspotting blokes in the no-fun corner of the pub. They form to make ladies drink, dance on tables, and want to have sex with them. On this basis, we can see that women understand rock music in a way men never will.

Are Women And Men On Different Tracks When It Comes To Their Favourite Music? [Times]
Related: BBC Chief: Male Musical Tastes More 'Intellectual' [Guardian]
6Music Boss Thinks You're An Idiot [The Lipster

"Men have a weaker sense of smell," Fisher explains. "Guys aren't as likely to notice... that they're snoozing in stinky sheets." [Ask my ex boyfriend. -Ed.] That's not it, Palmer claims. Men are plain old lazy! He writes: "Do you know how much a pain in the ass it is to put that fitted sheet on?" Well here's one we agree on! And, for the record, not all women change their sheets all the damn time. Although maybe today we will, now that we're thinking about it.

As for why guys assume that other guys they don't really know are losers, Cosmo posits that it's a caveman thing, i.e. anyone not in the inner circle is the enemy. And a threat. Grr! Palmer calls bullshit on that too. "Guys don't do constant evaluation of other guys, unless we are sizing them up for fighting purposes. This is a feminine trait, and stating that we think in the same manner is false." Feminine trait? Hmm, not sure about that. But also, aren't guys who think strangers are losers just projecting? As for why men prefer women to be on top (Cosmo says "Pleasing you is a priority," Palmer says guys "would rather bring you to orgasm with you not leading the way... Sitting there and letting you use us like a chair-mounted dildo detracts from the ego boost."). We think, top or bottom, isn't the guy just thankful to be getting laid? Lastly, to answer the question "Why do guys need to win at everything?" (Cosmo blames testosterone, Palmer blames "No Fear" T-shirts) — we'd like to ask: Who likes to lose? And since when is it gender-specific? Also: Why doesn't Cosmo hire a man to decode dudes?

Lies Cosmo Tells Women [Double Viking]

Related: Pointless Banter [Kevin Palmer]