aussie_nub t1_iybighc wrote
Reply to comment by lionhearted_sparrow in TIFU by lying about my age by [deleted]
Ok then, why is someone that's 16 allowed to have sex with someone 18 but not 19 (at least where I am)? I understand there's a line that needs to be drawn in the sand, and that's a legal requirement, but people are talking about a moral one when they use words like "gross".
I stand by what I said. Mentally 17 year olds and 18 year olds aren't far apart, so either it's life stages that are the problem (which is valid, since they're clearly in different parts of their lives... but so are 50 year olds with 30 year olds) or it's just the numerical distance of the large gap.
lionhearted_sparrow t1_iycxscz wrote
Life stages are drastically different at shorter age distances the younger you go.
Developmentally, four months age difference in infants is a huge amount. The difference between someone in highschool and a nineteen year old is also huge. The amount of time that makes a difference gets larger as you get older.
But also you missed my point: it is in appropriate for someone in their 50s to pursue a teenager, no matter what side of legality they fall on, because there is an inherent power imbalance due to the experience differential that there is no way to overcome. That means that you can never actually be sure that it is consensual for the teenager (I can’t think of a single reason it would be), which makes it not okay, morally. Legally enforcing the nuance involved post-eighteen would be a nightmare, so instead we trust adults to self govern at that point. To make their own decisions to not be gross. And we rely on morals to gauge that and only enter consensual relationships.
aussie_nub t1_iyezjnd wrote
And yet, it happens all the time. Sugar babies are a thing now where women 18-24 pursue men that are much older. 30, 40, 50+.
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