AyuHikaru wrote:The thing is just because the consent laws say a 16 year old can make the decision to have sex (They can) it doesn't mean they would go and have sex with 30 year old perverts (As much as the 30 year old perverts wish for it to happen). People always go to that logical extreme, and it's just not the case. More often than not a 16 year old girl is going to go after an 18-20 year old man. Just because 30 year old pedos exist, doesn't mean we treat 16 year olds as if they're 13.
fwiw I totally agree. Consent laws should be reasonable and not based on some crazy puritan shit (that's not even in the Bible). But, with them being what they are, I'm just saying I can't really muster sympathy for a 30+ person who finds 18 year olds too old for his or her taste.
Pavlova wrote:I don't know. I dated a 27 year old for a while when I was 17 and it didn't feel gross at the time and 6-7 years later it still doesn't feel gross or inappropriate. I guess it all comes down to each individual case and person.
Well, there are always exceptions which is why I agree what we call in the US "statutory" laws should be revisited. That is, there should be some accounting for the maturity of the parties and the nature of the relationship. But for every mature 17 year old like you, there are plenty more who wind up stuck with a kid, getting an STD, neglecting their studies and future, getting emotionally scarred, etc. Sure those things can happen anyway, but a mature adult shouldn't be a party to ruining a minor's life. One of my gf's relatives was 15 when a 28-29 year old oversexed cousin of a cousin moved in and had her way with him, basically on demand. At the time he wasn't complaining but later he realized that it caused him a lot of emotional stress that he did not know how to process at the time, and which adversely affected his later relationships with girls his own age. And the worst part was that even after his mother realized what was going on, she didn't kick the cousin out or call the cops. She was just sort of like, could you not do that anymore? Don't remember exactly how they broke things off, I think the girl just got tired of him and went back to her ex, who promptly knocked her teeth out.

Pavlova wrote:Like I got judged a lot back then, people were like "What can you guys even *talk* about?!" and I was like "Uh... music? literature? cooking? movies? architecture? traveling? EVERYTHING?"
Oh how I loved this film.