The mind boggles ...

[TBird1958]

Were the gender roles reversed how would we all feel about this? 

[patman]

Is an 18 year old age of consent realistic?

[uwe]

Were the gender roles reversed how would we all feel about this?

A legitimate question. In which case a 12-year-old girl would have given birth to a(nother) child. Which does complicate the knee jerk reaction: Why should it be different?

But if you take away the pregnancy aspect and the health/biological aspects it has for a woman that young: No, there should be no difference. Unless you think that women are somehow less capable of taking their own responsible decisions regarding sex and relationships and warrant paternalistic protection.

That was a carefully weighed, lawyerly answer, I know. I guess you could make the credible argument that the potential pregnancy aspect warrants paternalistic protection of females more.

Return question: When does a female have the right to decide that she wants to become pregnant?

[uwe]

Is an 18 year old age of consent realistic?

Asking the question is answering it. 18 years is probably even more unrealistic today than it ever was since the dawn of civilization. Blame media access and an abundance of protein in our nutrition like we have never had historically before. Actually, by all empirical studies in Western countries, teens don't have sex any much earlier today than they had it, say, 40 years ago, but their bodies mature considerably earlier. So there is a gap between biology and social interaction.

[Dave W]

Were the gender roles reversed how would we all feel about this?

I'd feel exactly the same. The only question would be whether or not there was coercion.

Is an 18 year old age of consent realistic?

Nope!

[lowend1]

In other news...
https://www.etonline.com/gwyneth-paltrow-proves-she-has-a-sense-of-humor-by-responding-to-a-nsfw-meme-about-her-108807

[Dave W]

In other news...
https://www.etonline.com/gwyneth-paltrow-proves-she-has-a-sense-of-humor-by-responding-to-a-nsfw-meme-about-her-108807

Will she remember to remove the jade egg (or whatever) from her vagina first?

[westen44]

Here is a new article explaining that Asia Argento has decided to stop making payments to Bennett.  The last paragraph is the most pertinent, IMO.  In the previous articles, it was my understanding that he was 17 when the so-called incident took place.  He is saying he was underage when the event took place.  That he doesn't think people can understand this "from the eyes of a teenage boy."

My goodness, 17 isn't 12.  When I was 17, quite a few thing were going on.  In many ways, I was like an adult.  My band was doing well.  We even played at the Junior-Senior prom when I was 17.  We weren't babies.  Sex wasn't something scary to us like this guy is acting like it was for him.  I'm sure there are those who can identify with what I'm saying.  As far as I'm concerned, it would be nice if he would just shut up, live life and stop whining.  It seems to me Asia Argento has enough problems in her life, like, for instance, having her boyfriend killing himself.  I'm sure she would have preferred that that hadn't happened, that the public would at least give her the benefit of the doubt, and that the Bennett guy would STFU.  Maybe she really is an awful person.  I don't know.  But I do know that a person who is 17 should be able to handle things a lot better than Bennett did.  He is 22 now.  I wonder if he is going to just keep bitching about supposedly being a victim.  To quote Nietzsche from "Untimely Meditations"----

2. Little Jimmy Bennett: If  nothing worse than being on the receiving end of a blow job will rank among the troubling/crippling issues of your life, then I'm happy for you. Meanwhile, do choke on that money.

https://pagesix.com/2018/09/04/asia-argento-wont-pay-accuser-the-rest-of-380k-hush-money/

[lowend1]

Will she remember to remove the jade egg (or whatever) from her vagina first?

News Flash...
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2018/09/05/gwyneth-paltrows-goop-agrees-to-pay-settlement-over-unscientific-health-claims-about-vaginal-eggs.html

[Dave W]

Here is a new article explaining that Asia Argento has decided to stop making payments to Bennett.  The last paragraph is the most pertinent, IMO.  In the previous articles, it was my understanding that he was 17 when the so-called incident took place.  He is saying he was underage when the event took place.  That he doesn't think people can understand this "from the eyes of a teenage boy."

My goodness, 17 isn't 12.  When I was 17, quite a few thing were going on.  In many ways, I was like an adult.  My band was doing well.  We even played at the Junior-Senior prom when I was 17.  We weren't babies.  Sex wasn't something scary to us like this guy is acting like it was for him.  I'm sure there are those who can identify with what I'm saying.  As far as I'm concerned, it would be nice if he would just shut up, live life and stop whining.  It seems to me Asia Argento has enough problems in her life, like, for instance, having her boyfriend killing himself.  I'm sure she would have preferred that that hadn't happened, that the public would at least give her the benefit of the doubt, and that the Bennett guy would STFU.  Maybe she really is an awful person.  I don't know.  But I do know that a person who is 17 should be able to handle things a lot better than Bennett did.  He is 22 now.  I wonder if he is going to just keep bitching about supposedly being a victim.  To quote Nietzsche from "Untimely Meditations"----

2. Little Jimmy Bennett: If  nothing worse than being on the receiving end of a blow job will rank among the troubling/crippling issues of your life, then I'm happy for you. Meanwhile, do choke on that money.

https://pagesix.com/2018/09/04/asia-argento-wont-pay-accuser-the-rest-of-380k-hush-money/

Good.

I haven't forgotten my teenage years, or the joy of going out with girls a few years older. 

News Flash...
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2018/09/05/gwyneth-paltrows-goop-agrees-to-pay-settlement-over-unscientific-health-claims-about-vaginal-eggs.html

Now what will we do to make fun of her and the sheep who believe her claims?

[westen44]

^^^
I can only speak for myself, but I can vividly remember reaching puberty early.  Certainly, I fantasized about my English teacher as a 7th grader.  On top of that, I actually learned quite a lot about the English language from her.   Whether something like that is a good thing or not, I'm not quite sure.  But that's the way things happened.  Anyway, the only things that happened were things that happened in my mind fueled by raging hormones.  To be more specific, I was only imagining what the teacher would look like in sexy outfits. It didn't go beyond that.  But it wasn't wholesome thinking and I'm not saying it was something a person should necessarily be commended for.  She was an outstanding teacher, though.  Later she ended up teaching college.  I'm sure there were some attentive male students when that happened.  (Maybe some female ones, too, for all I know.)

To me one of the overall issues in this case is this appears to be another example of how the American public makes snap judgments on incomplete info.  There may be more to this Asia Argento story than meets the eye.  I don't have all the facts and I doubt if anyone else does, either.  But I try to not be someone who rushes to judgment if at all possible.  There are two sides to every story.  I just happened to run across this new article from USA Today several moments ago. This may be the best article on the subject I've seen so far. 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2018/09/05/asia-argento-payments-jimmy-bennett-sexual-assault-accuser/1200041002/

[Dave W]

But if we can't make snap judgments, how will we be able to come up with something new to be outraged about every day? 

[Granny Gremlin]

If there's any 17-year-old male who wouldn't jump at the opportunity to bed an attractive woman a few years older, I don't think I've ever met him.  That heavily colors my opinion of this situation.

Sorry bud, but that is the daftest statement I have ever heard.  Also, a large part of the problem of why male survivors have such a hard time coming forward for help nevermind justice. It's a self-fiullfilling prophecy, and Uwe (as a lawyer well versed in the rules of logic/rhetoric), can tell you exactly what logical phallusy [sic] that is. 

Not everyone, for various reasons, is ready for sex at 17, even if they think they want it, it can turn out to be problematic afterwards.

I'm also a bit mistified that Uwe seems to think that if his son did have any issues (not saying he does, mind, just if) that daddy would be the first to know.  I doubt most of us told our dads shit, especially if it made us look less strong or manly to do so.

Were the gender roles reversed how would we all feel about this?

Ding Ding Ding!

I also think a few of us have some very thick rose-colored glasses on when remebering how mature we were at the age of 17.  It is also quite daft to assume everyone's experience is going to be the same as those colored memories.  Great, nothing bad or weird (sexually) happened to  you at that age (or, as an obvious example, even younger, which made you not ready for it just yet at 17, cuz you, being the manly man you were expected to be, didn't tell nobody and so hadn't worked through it yet) so it was all great and you were great, but that doesn't mean it was like that for everyone else, or that you were actually that great at all in the first place actually.

Everything seems to be suffocated under a blanket of new prudery these days while at the same time porn is omnipresent.

It's not prudishness, it's an attempt to develop a more universal baseline level of empathy.  And no, the copious simulated rape/incest/Teen porn catagories that top the most popular lists on your favorite porn aggregator site are not helping.

[westen44]

But if we can't make snap judgments, how will we be able to come up with something new to be outraged about every day?

Although I consider the TV series itself somewhat flawed (a comedy/sci-fi show is hard to do,) there is an episode of "The Orville" which kind of deals with this issue.  An entire society which functions based on what essentially consists of snap decisions by the inhabitants. 

[Dave W]

That looks interesting. Missed it completely. Guess I'll tune in for the upcoming season.