Thread Closed
First of all, age is a completely arbitrary metric to begin with. I've seen and met preteens with more mental and emotional maturity than grown adults. How one individual copes with physical intimacy is going to have less to do with their physical age and a lot more to do with how they were raised, their particular circumstances and experiences, their partner, etc. Arbitrarily cutting off any interactions with younger people out of irrational fears of exploitation does more harm than good at any rate.
I mean, look, yes, there is an obvious power imbalance between a 31 year-old and a 16 year-old. Does such a relationship suddenly and magically become okay when they reach whatever arbitrary cut-off point society has deemed the age of consent (as happens so often in today's society)? Why do you care so much about the actual number? You should be able to decide, both ICly and OOCly, how your character views the situation and whether or not the other party is acting in such a fashion that they display the requisite maturity. This problem is easily solved simply by having your character react in an apropros fashion. (But of course, if you intentionally make a character that's the type to not give two shits... well, that's on you.)
And this is a tangent, but demonizing pedophilia is not doing you any favors, either. Child molestation, abuse, and rape, sure, condemn those all you want. There are, however, a huge number of individuals (something like 1% - that's one out of a hundred - of males, which is likely an under-reported number given the social stigma associated with it) with the condition of pedophilia who have never done any of the above and simply live with their condition without telling a soul (because obviously telling people is social suicide). Like any sort of mental disorder, treatment and understanding go a lot, LOT further than simply criminalizing anyone who displays signs of abnormality.
Yes, it is a terrible condition that drives people to do terrible things, but it is only one part of any individual's whole, and their good side overpowers that condition so frequently that you only ever hear about the ones who fail spectacularly. One of the most difficult things about the condition is the realization that many people may have it whom you would never even suspect of having it, and turning it into a thought-crime only drives those people to bury their thoughts further - and I'm sure you can understand why that is never a healthy coping strategy.
And also, every time someone refers to people attracted to those in the ephebophile range using the word "pedophile" I die a little inside. There is a HUGE difference between someone going for prepubescent children (0 sexual or physical maturity) and someone going for teenagers (often near the end of puberty) at the very borders of the age of consent. One is an actual paraphilia and can be classed as a mental disorder. The other is perfectly normal (if immoral). Please straighten out your terminology, thank you.
I mean, look, yes, there is an obvious power imbalance between a 31 year-old and a 16 year-old. Does such a relationship suddenly and magically become okay when they reach whatever arbitrary cut-off point society has deemed the age of consent (as happens so often in today's society)? Why do you care so much about the actual number? You should be able to decide, both ICly and OOCly, how your character views the situation and whether or not the other party is acting in such a fashion that they display the requisite maturity. This problem is easily solved simply by having your character react in an apropros fashion. (But of course, if you intentionally make a character that's the type to not give two shits... well, that's on you.)
And this is a tangent, but demonizing pedophilia is not doing you any favors, either. Child molestation, abuse, and rape, sure, condemn those all you want. There are, however, a huge number of individuals (something like 1% - that's one out of a hundred - of males, which is likely an under-reported number given the social stigma associated with it) with the condition of pedophilia who have never done any of the above and simply live with their condition without telling a soul (because obviously telling people is social suicide). Like any sort of mental disorder, treatment and understanding go a lot, LOT further than simply criminalizing anyone who displays signs of abnormality.
Yes, it is a terrible condition that drives people to do terrible things, but it is only one part of any individual's whole, and their good side overpowers that condition so frequently that you only ever hear about the ones who fail spectacularly. One of the most difficult things about the condition is the realization that many people may have it whom you would never even suspect of having it, and turning it into a thought-crime only drives those people to bury their thoughts further - and I'm sure you can understand why that is never a healthy coping strategy.
And also, every time someone refers to people attracted to those in the ephebophile range using the word "pedophile" I die a little inside. There is a HUGE difference between someone going for prepubescent children (0 sexual or physical maturity) and someone going for teenagers (often near the end of puberty) at the very borders of the age of consent. One is an actual paraphilia and can be classed as a mental disorder. The other is perfectly normal (if immoral). Please straighten out your terminology, thank you.