Grandpa has a magic lap
Reading Glaivester led me to CounterPunch,
a radical leftist publication (oh crap, only now I just realized that a
far better title for this post would have been "DonkeyPunch") whose
writers seem angry about many things from Israel to Brokeback Mountain,
notably that this movie wasn't radical enough and the fact that it
didn't win an Oscar for Best Picture.
The site also features essay "Scapegoats and Shunning" by "Pariah". It is... interesting in many ways, and at least it does make one good point about the age of consent, even if indirectly.
In the vast majority of countries in the world and even in the Western world and especially Europe, the legal age of consent for sex is less than 18, typically somewhere around 16. So anybody who wants to claim that the age of consent must be 18 or even 21 by some inviolable edict of nature so that any man over 18 who lusts over any woman who is even one second younger than 18 is a "pedophile", must necessarily believe that the vast majority of people in the world casually accept "pedophilia" or even happen to be "pedophiles" themselves, according to this definition. It's either that, or then you have to engage in serious somersaults of cultural relativism to explain why some man in Europe who has had sex with a woman who is over 16 but under 18, while he was himself over 18, is not a pedophile, but an American man who has done the exact same thing is. And the number of European men who have done this is far from insignificant.
As for myself, I would follow my own culture in this question and believe that 16 would be an appropriate age of consent, if I were the legislator. But I have no horse in this race, nor any desire to start advocating such change in my new homeland... Jesus Holy Motherfucking Christ, is the age of consent in Canada really 14? I always assumed that it was 18, like in the States. Man, despite being so close, this country so is not like the United States in some surprising ways. Personally, I would think that 14 is too young to consent, but hey, who am I to judge? Besides, how can anybody ever say that something is "wrong"?
Note also that the major force in making the age of consent is so low especially in Europe have typically been the leftist and gay organizations, so any leftist looking to point moralizing fingers about this issue had better be very careful here. And as the essay points out, the loudest voices defending sex with teenagers in America have recently belonged to radical feminists.
However, in Pariah's essay we later learn that
The site also features essay "Scapegoats and Shunning" by "Pariah". It is... interesting in many ways, and at least it does make one good point about the age of consent, even if indirectly.
In the vast majority of countries in the world and even in the Western world and especially Europe, the legal age of consent for sex is less than 18, typically somewhere around 16. So anybody who wants to claim that the age of consent must be 18 or even 21 by some inviolable edict of nature so that any man over 18 who lusts over any woman who is even one second younger than 18 is a "pedophile", must necessarily believe that the vast majority of people in the world casually accept "pedophilia" or even happen to be "pedophiles" themselves, according to this definition. It's either that, or then you have to engage in serious somersaults of cultural relativism to explain why some man in Europe who has had sex with a woman who is over 16 but under 18, while he was himself over 18, is not a pedophile, but an American man who has done the exact same thing is. And the number of European men who have done this is far from insignificant.
As for myself, I would follow my own culture in this question and believe that 16 would be an appropriate age of consent, if I were the legislator. But I have no horse in this race, nor any desire to start advocating such change in my new homeland... Jesus Holy Motherfucking Christ, is the age of consent in Canada really 14? I always assumed that it was 18, like in the States. Man, despite being so close, this country so is not like the United States in some surprising ways. Personally, I would think that 14 is too young to consent, but hey, who am I to judge? Besides, how can anybody ever say that something is "wrong"?
Note also that the major force in making the age of consent is so low especially in Europe have typically been the leftist and gay organizations, so any leftist looking to point moralizing fingers about this issue had better be very careful here. And as the essay points out, the loudest voices defending sex with teenagers in America have recently belonged to radical feminists.
However, in Pariah's essay we later learn that
Most sex offenders, says one therapist who works with sex offenders in a state prison system, are "Gentle grandfathers who made one mistake in judgment years ago and fondled their grandchild. Or lonely, geeky gay men--teenagers some of them--who sought mutual sexual release with adolescent boys. Or young female teachers who succumbed to the wiles of handsome adolescent boys or girls. Or young men who got drunk and pushed their girlfriends over a line that is now called date rape."
For an interesting thought experiment, imagine what would happen if some conservative outfit ever published that very same paragraph.
There is a term specific for being primarily attracted to underage adolescents as an adult. It is ephebophilia. (Uh FEE bo feel ee uh).
Posted by Glaivester | 10:04 AM
Pariah's essay nonwithstanding, age of consent in the US varies by state and 16 is more common than 18. As far as the federal government is concerned, you can have sex with 16-year-olds but god forbid you try to videotape it before they are 18.
And yes, I've met people who have claimed, with a straight face, that having sex with a 17-year-old in New York is perfectly OK, but that even thinking of the same thing in California makes you a disgusting pervert. Go figure.
Posted by Vera | 1:37 PM
There is a term specific for being primarily attracted to underage adolescents as an adult. It is ephebophilia.
Of course, but I wanted to use the exact same terminology that feminists and other nutjobs use, to demonstrate how silly their arguments are.
Do you remember what happened a few months ago when John Derbyshire made the mistake of saying that woman's attractiveness peaks around 16 ot 17 or so?
Posted by Ilkka Kokkarinen | 1:54 PM