knight steel said:
Dear escapist lets have a serious discussion about the double standards involving pedophilia.We in our day and age have very interesting views on pedophilia which i will try my best to describe.
If a 14 year boy willing has sexual relations with a very attractive 34 year old teacher some of us would find that ok saying stuff like "that lucky bastard" and would opt for no real punishment on the women behalf.
Now take that same situation and reverse the genders a 14 year old girl willing agrees to have sex relations with a very attractive 34 year old male teacher. Most people would say "that scum lock him up for life".
Why is that my dear escapist? Their both the same age and both fully agree knowing full well what would happen? They weren't forced they both consented but the male teacher receives more blame.And what does the attractiveness have to do with the situation? If the Female was ugly why would our view change .
So the questions i would like to ask are this: Do you agree with this double standard why/why not, What punishment would you give the teachers if any?
Now your probably wondering whats my view,it simple if both people agree and know the consequences and are both above the age of 13 then no what the gender there should be no punishment. Now it's your turn.
Edit: I'm talking about the double standard of most of the public not the law.......
I think you'd find the majority of people would disagree that a younger boy and an elder woman is "okay."
However, you are correct in that you'd find people are less likely to be as outraged with that scenario than if the genders were reversed.
On the other hand, the reason for this has very little to do with sinister adult conspiracies against child sexuality and much more to do with the way "female rape" is addressed in society. One of the major headaches of sex-related criminal law is whether or not a woman is, in fact, capable of rape. There's quite a vast field of disagreement on this subject. Some claim that women are not physically strong enough to engage in rape. Others claim that the primary motivation behind rape is power, which manifests in women differently than men.
Applied to your desire to rape 13 year-olds, the suggestion here is that women are less likely to force a child to have sex. Thus, if it occurs, the implication can exist that it was not entirely involuntary.
But to claim women are incapable of rape is close-minded. Rape is about power, and power is attractive to all sexes. Generalizations such as "women don't seek power" sets back our social understanding more than it helps. It's also fairly immature to think power only manifests in physical form - in fact, rape often occurs without a credible threat of lethal injury (which is why it was so hard for women to win rape cases until pretty recently). Setting aside the fact that a weapon makes a woman dangerous as any man, power is ultimately one's mental influence over another's actions. For example, if a mother forces her child to sleep with her, we can't conceivably say that this was not an abuse of her maternal power - therefore, it is a textbook definition of rape.
Which leads us to your horny boy and elder woman fantasy. Yes, teens are often thinking with their hormones rather than their minds. Does this make it acceptable for a woman to take advantage of this? Is it acceptable for a man to take advantage of a drunk woman? Is it acceptable for a person to use a position of power to force a subordinate into a sexual act, like, say, boss over employee, teacher over student, parent over child? Or, indeed, an adult over a teenager?
Talk to some teenage rape victims, one on one, sometime. It's never their idea. As hormone-driven as they may be, teens are still human enough to know when they've been taken advantage of. Statutory rape is nowhere near a light matter as some may like to make it out to be.
I'm thinking that you're attempting to justify an open concept of child sexuality, but I'd like you to note that these kinds of issues shouldn't be determined by technicalities. In other words, making these kinds of comparative arguments does not justify the many cases where an adult sexually abused and traumatized a child, no matter if they were 13 or not. And I'd note that your cutoff line at 13 years seems as arbitrary as 18 seems to you. Is it just because that's when "teenagers" start? Why isn't it 13 years and 6 months? How do you determine when a child is old enough? When they're old enough to get pregnant?
Well, the youngest recorded pregnancy is at about 6 years. I hope you're not that sick.
Think about this - a person's skeleton grows into their twenties. Mental and emotional development continues well into adulthood. Adult features, such as a leaner torso, adult height, widened hips, etc. usually do not develop until well past 15.
If you're a grown man who thinks that kids with big eyes, chubby cheeks, and disproportionately-sized head is cute, don't fret. Of course it's cute - babies are cute, dogs are cute. If, however, you start thinking "cute" in this case is "sexy," then I suggest you talk to a counselor. It doesn't necessarily mean you're a pedophile - chances are, there's a reason why you can't move past this and mature in your world outlook. Problems will begin only if you start to indulge and rationalize this fault - then you're down a slippery slope.
Yes, 18 years is an arbitrary limit. Chances are, that girl gone wild will be as messed up at 18 revolutions of the sun as she was at 17.9 revolutions. I've met forty year-old guys who "never grew up." I've met kids who've seen a lifetime's worth of trouble their few years. BUT! You do have to draw the line somewhere. There has to be some point where you can say that most people before this need to somebody make sure their dumb decisions don't bite them in the ass and after this can be reasonably expected to deal with dumb consequences themselves. Arbitrary? Maybe. But it's a pretty good median. Just deal with it.
And seriously, if you can't see the difference between a 13 year old and a 34 year old, call an optometrist. Hell, I'm in my twenties and I can tell apart 18 years from 21 years. And I think most people can as well.
One thing you learn as you mature - you have to address your own troubles before foisting them upon the world. Most teens aren't wise enough or experienced enough to know that. And that's why we protect them.
