Luz Alptraum's WHY 16?: Thinking Deeply About Age of Consent Laws

We wrote a post about Alan Dershowitz's op-ed that "Statutory Rape IS an Outdated Concept". Luz Alptraum wrote in the piece "Why 16? posted on The Cut that:

"[...] the knee-jerk response to Dershowitz’s op-ed is one we should take a moment to think more deeply about."

"[...] it’s worth asking whether consent laws are actually the best way to protect young people from abuse and exploitation."

"Age of consent laws are flawed. At best, they’re a somewhat effective strategy to protect young people from abuse and exploitation, one that mistakenly conflates a legal age of majority with a universal milestone of emotional maturity. At worst, they’re a weapon wielded by a punitive, sex-phobic system that polices young women’s sexuality and robs them of any sense of agency over their own bodies and desires."

"When American purity reformers began advocating for an increased age of consent in the late 1800s, their argument hinged on the idea of women as sexless, innocent creatures seduced into vice by immoral men."

"Where the age of consent was once intended to shield innocent, sexless women from male depravity, it’s now framed as a way to protect teens — whose burgeoning sexual desires often outpace the development of their emotional maturity and relationship skills — from their own urges [...]"

"Troublingly, this refusal to see young women as complex individuals with sexual agency continues once they’ve reached the age of consent. If younger teens are seen as off-limits, once someone has reached the age of 18 (or, in many states, 17 or 16) it’s presumed that anything goes, as though a switch is magically flipped in our brains the second we reach that milestone."

"And for young people who act on sexual urges prior to the age at which they’re legally presumed able, these laws can have severely negative impacts. In addition to criminalizing teens who have sex with other teens, or labeling a 16-year-old who takes a naked selfie as a child pornographer, age of consent laws can cause harm to young people who find themselves in sexual relationships with adults. Rather than protecting vulnerable young people from exploitation, these laws can discourage them from coming forward about their relationships, and isolate them from potential support systems [...]"

"Wendy Ortiz, whose memoir, Excavation, chronicles the relationship she had with her English teacher as a teenager, is intimately familiar with this unintended effect of statutory-rape laws. When she sought out a therapist, she tells me, “she laid out the limits of confidentiality,” limits that included mandatory reporting of child abuse. “Internally I thought, ‘Nope, I won’t be telling her, or returning,’” Ortiz tells me. “I wasn’t ready for the relationship to end” — or, for that matter, for the man she believed she loved to face harsh legal consequences for their relationship."

"A 15-year-old who genuinely believes she’s in love with an adult isn’t likely to be deterred from sex because the law says she can’t consent. If anything, she’ll assume that the law has misjudged her own maturity and the authenticity of her relationship. As a result, she’ll be more motivated to keep the relationship a secret [...]"

"What if we created a society that placed a priority on sex education, that raised young people to understand their sexual desires and curiosities as healthy — and encouraged them to explore them in safe, age-appropriate ways? What if we recognized young people as the confused, fumbling proto-adults that they are, rather than fetishizing them as “innocent” or preternaturally skilled? What if we encouraged each other to value relationships between equals, to truly prioritize authentic consent — as opposed to merely treating consent as a checkbox that can be ticked off once someone reaches a certain age? That might provide a pathway to a different understanding of youth sexuality, consent, and relationships. And it might give us a way to protect the most vulnerable among us without robbing them of their agency, their individuality, and their ability to seek support when they find themselves in potentially abusive situations."

We inserted ellipses where Luz appears to make contradictory points. For example, Luz wrote that age of consent laws "robs" nymphets "of any sense of agency over their own bodies and desires" and that age of consent laws "hinged on the idea of women as sexless, innocent creatures seduced into vice by immoral men." 

But then Luz makes the same argument that the American purity reformers/Women’s Christian Temperance made, which is that the age of consent laws protect nymphets from predatory adults, abuse and exploitation. 

However, we've shown from a plethora of books, movies, streams, and plays that, just like in non-fiction/life, age-gap relationships are most often initiated by nymphets and it's men who are unable to resist the allure of (underaged) nymphets (e.g., Elvis, Woody Allen, Marvin Gaye, etc.).

Furthermore, a 15-year-old nymphet is more likely to be abused and exploited by a 15-year-old boy than a 51-year-old man. And that is why (orthodox) Jews and (most) Muslims separate their congregations, after puberty, by gender.  

A History of the Age of Consent & Ramifications

A History of the Age of Consent

I related in The Allure of Nymphets that Mary E. Odem shared in Delinquent Daughters that until 1897 the age of consent in California and in most states was ten. It was twelve in seven states and, even more shocking, it was seven in Delaware. How did the ages get so low? Our early age of consent laws originated over the pond. And how did the age go from ten to seventeen in most states? Feminists are to blame thank.

Odem wrote that after the 19th century, many young women started working outside of the home and consequently became more promiscuous. Feminists blamed the raunchy behavior on "dirty old men" who paid for the services of nymphet prostitutes and successfully lobbied to have the age of consent raised. However, it backfired, because a number of young women became even more licentious.

To give an example of how raunchy things got, Odem related that during World War I, when the problem of female sexual delinquency assumed national proportions with the spread of prostitution and consequently venereal diseases among soldiers, a five-mile radius moral zone was implemented around military training camps. In those moral zones, alcohol and prostitution were prohibited. Surprisingly, the military discovered that it was not professional prostitutes who were loitering around military bases - it was thousands of teen prostitutes.

Consequently, feminists realized that issues like abuse, education, and poverty had more to do with the nymphet's erratic behavior than "dirty old men", but it was too late. The damage had already been done. The age of consent laws had been changed. However, there were two unsuccessful attempts to lower the age of consent.  In 1889, there was an effort in Kansas to lower the age to twelve, and in 1890, there was an attempt in New York to lower the age fourteen.

"Childhood" in New York

New York magazine had a April 8, 2013 cover story on "Childhood in New York" and printed Jennifer Senior's article "Little Grown-ups and Their Progeny". Senior's report was consistent with the research that I related in The Allure of Nymphets about childhood being a relatively recent invention.

 

Senior related that up until the end of the WWII, children were expected to contribute to the family financially. Particular to New York City, newsboys were rampant, but delivering newspapers wasn’t their only source of income. They "blacked boots, scavenged for junk, and shuttled messages and goods.” But “child poverty, child abuse, and exploitative labor practices” lead to an effort by reformers and the government (e.g. Children’s Bureau) to protect children.

However, Steven Mintz, the author of Huck’s Raft: A History of Childhood in America, said, “They [reformers and the government] viewed kids smoking at 10 and 12 and having independent money and walking into bars as the worst thing in the world. It reminds you that "child" is a label, not a reality.

Clearly, prior to the end the WWII and before the American economy prospered, young people (i.e., children) were expected to behave as adults in terms of earning a living wage. And their adult behavior, in terms of vices, was condoned. It was even common to see ten-year-old prostitutes in New York City.

Just like Neil Postman related in The Disappearance of Childhood, things have gone (almost) full circle. Today, children\teens behave like adults. For example, they drink, smoke, take drugs, have sex, and are (virtual) teen strippers. The Internet has broken the barrier that the invention of the printing press once erected after The Renaissance. In Porn Before Puberty?, an ABC News feature, Winnifred shared that when she was in eighth grade, "boys mostly, were watching porn during school [...] during independent reading, they would do that." In addition, the feature related that nine out of ten children between the ages of eight and sixteen have viewed pornography on the Internet. However, age of consent laws and high school continue to keep (most) "children" and adults separated. 

"Children" and Adults

"Why You Truly Never Leave High School" was printed in the January 20, 2013 issue of New York magazine. The article is about how high school is a sadistic institution and how new research suggests that high school may be worst possible place for a vulnerable sixteen-year-old mind. Here's an excerpt:

Until the Great Depression, the majority of American adolescents didn’t even graduate from high school. Once kids hit their teen years, they did a variety of things: farmed, helped run the home, earned a regular wage. Before the banning of child labor, they worked in factories and textile mills and mines. All were different roads to adulthood; many were undesirable, if not outright Dickensian. But these disparate paths did arguably have one virtue in common: They placed adolescent children alongside adults. They were not sequestered as they matured. Now teens live in a biosphere of their own. In their recent book Escaping the Endless Adolescence, psychologists Joseph and Claudia Worrell Allen note that teenagers today spend just 16 hours per week interacting with adults and 60 with their cohort. One century ago, it was almost exactly the reverse.

Something happens when children spend so much time apart from adult company. They start to generate a culture with independent values and priorities. James Coleman, a renowned mid-century sociologist, was among the first to analyze that culture in his seminal 1961 work, The Adolescent Society, and he wasn’t very impressed. “Our society has within its midst a set of small teen-age societies,” he wrote, “which focus teen-age interests and attitudes on things far removed from adult responsibilities.”

Anne Rice's sixteen-year-old Belinda had an affair with forty-four-year-old  author and artist Jeremy Walker after she had a fling with her step-father. Belinda exemplifies that a consequence of "children" being separated from adults is that when they do get together it's often done illegally due to age-of-consent laws - whether it's consequential, like in the case of Belinda, or non-consequential like in the case of incest. Belinda expressed her frustrations with being considered a child:

"Look, I had my first period at nine. I was wearing a C-cut bra by the time I was thirteen. The first boy I ever slept with was shaving every day at fifteen, we could have made babies together. And I found out the kids here are just as developed. I wasn't any freak, you know? But what is a kid here? What can you do? Even if you're going to school, even if you're a goody-two-shoes who hits the books every night, what about the rest of your life?"

"You can't legally smoke, drink, start a career, get married. You can't even legally drive a car till you're sixteen, and all this for years and years after you're a physical adult. All you can do is play till you're twenty-one, if you want to know. That's what life is to kids here - it's play. Play at love, play at sex, play at everything. And play at breaking the law every time you touch a cigarette or drink or somebody three or four years older than you."

Interestingly, the age of consent is still low in most of countries across the pond. For example, in Germany it's fourteen, in France it's fifteen, and in Spain it's a whopping thirteen. However, this shows that lowering the age-of-consent is not enough to remove the barrier between "children" and adults. The author's of Escaping the Endless Adolescence and The Adolescent Society may have surmised correctly that an additional culprit is the invention of high school.

A Brief History of US Age of Consent Laws

We related in The Allure of Nymphets from Mary E. Odem's Delinquent Daughters: Protecting and Policing Adolescent Female Sexuality in the United States, 1885-1920 that until 1897 the age of consent in California and most states was 10. That's correct, 10-years-old. It was 12 in seven states and even more shocking, it was 7 in Delaware. 

How did the ages get so low? Our early age of consent laws originated over the pond. How did the age of consent go from 10, in most states, to 17? Feminists are to blame thank.

After the 19th century, young women started working outside of the home and consequently became more promiscuous. Feminists blamed the raunchy behavior of young women on "dirty old men," and in an effort to scare older men off, they successfully lobbied to have the age of consent raised. 

However, it backfired, and young women became even more licentious. For example, there was a rise in, self-initiated sans pimps, teen prostitution. Consequently, feminists realized that issues like abuse, education, and poverty had more to do with the erratic behavior of nymphets than older men, but it was too late. The damage had already been done. The age of consent laws had been passed.

However, there were two unsuccessful attempts to lower the age of consent.  In 1889, there was an effort in Kansas to lower the age to 12, and in 1890, there was an attempt in New York to lower the age to 14.

Interestingly, the age of consent is still low in most of countries across the pond. For example, in Germany it's 14, in France it's 15, and in Spain it's 13.

France May Set [Official] Age of Sexual Consent to 15

Amanda Arnold reported for New York Magazine's "The Cut" that "France Is Finally Setting an Age of Consent":

On Tuesday, the country announced that it would finally set the [official] age of sexual consent [...] at 15.

I inserted the word official, because France does have an [unofficial age of consent]. Arnold wrote:

While current law criminalizes sexual relations with a minor under the age of 15, these cases are typically prosecuted as an offense that carries lighter penalties. In order to bring more serious charges of rape, prosecutors have to prove that violence, force, surprise, or coercion were involved, even in cases where the victim was as young as 11 years old.

Psychologist Muriel Salmona related that the dark side of the allure of nymphets is problematic in Europe - especially in France:

“The figures on violence against children are bad for most of Europe,” psychologist Muriel Salmona told the BBC. “But in France there is a current that tolerates sexual violence against children.”

Arnold reported that, in 2018, there was an attempt at setting an [official] French age of consent, but it was (unsurprisingly) blocked by men's groups:

In March 2018, the country introduced a package of laws intended to combat the prevalence of misconduct, which included fines for sexual harassment and set the country’s age of consent to 15. However, following pressure from men’s groups, the age-of-consent law was scrapped after a government report concluded it would result in “an assumption of guilt.”

Lastly, in recents weeks, protests have erupted in France. The protests were prompted by a case involving "Julie" who between the ages of 13 and 15 periodically had "group sex" with French firefighters whom stated the the age-gap group sex was consensual:

Cries intensified further in recent weeks, as France’s highest court prepares to hear a high-profile case involving a woman who says she was repeatedly raped by 20 firefighters over a two-year period, when she was between the ages of 13 and 15. (The woman, who has been dubbed “Julie” by the French media, is now 25.) Three of the firemen said they did in fact have sex with Julie when she was a minor, two of whom admitted to having “group sex” while on duty, though they argue that relations were consensual. 

Per Alan Dershowitz: Statutory Rape IS an Outdated Concept

We've shared previously that, per the New York Magazine cover story "Childhood in New York City", the term "[...] child" is a label, not a reality."

And we related from Mary E. Odem's Delinquent Daughters that it was widely believed by feminists and the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) that before the 19th century and up until the early 20th century a girl’s “sexual purity” could only be taken unwillingly through physical and/or mental seduction. 

Furthermore, the notion was denied that nymphets had sexual desires. Therefore, feminists blamed “dirty old men” for the promiscuous behavior young women; thus, they lobbied to raise the age of consent. Their hope was that the threat of jail time would stop men from seducing nymphets. 

The WCTU campaign spread around the country, was attached to the woman’s suffrage movement, and due to that joint effort, by 1920 almost every state in North America raised the age of consent to sixteen or eighteen. 

However, there were two attempts, one in Kansas in 1889 and one in New York in 1890, to lower the age of consent to twelve and fourteen, respectively. But those attempts by legislators were fought against by feminists and obviously were unsuccessful.

Even though the age of consent in France is a mere fifteen-years-old, in 1977 over sixty prominent male and female French intellectuals from physicians to professors signed a petition against the land’s age of consent laws. The essential argument of the group was that as long as sex between an adult and someone under the age of fifteen was consensual and does not include violence, money, or any form of prostitution, then it should be legalized. The group could not understand how it was legal to distribute birth control pills to thirteen-year-old girls in France, but it was illegal for those same girls to have sex [with older men].

In addition, Alan Dershowitz, the (in)famous attorney and former Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, opined in a 1997 Los Angeles Times op-ed piece that "Statutory Rape IS an Outdated Concept". Dershowitz wrote:

If a 16-year-old can have an abortion, she should be able to have sex.

According to the National Survey of Family Growth, almost 60% of the women shared that they had sex while they were nymphets.

"[...] very few statutory rape charges actually are brought. They laws remain on the books, poised to be used selectively in certain kinds of high visibility cases."

"[For example] Michael Kennedy [...] had an affair with his children's babysitter, who is now a 19-year-old college student. There is no hard evidence that there was a sexual encounter between Kennedy and the babysitter before her 16th birthday [...] [Thus] there is no criminal case of statutory rape [...]"

"In the absence of physical evidence-such as pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease-a charge of statutory rape generally requires testimony by the victim. But since the sex was consensual, it is rare [...] (if the sex was not consensual [...] it is ordinary rape rather than statutory rape). Thus 99% of cases of statutory rape are not prosecuted.

"[...] there must be criminal sanctions against sex with very young children, but it is doubtful whether such sanctions should apply to teenagers [...] since voluntary sex is so common in their age group"

"[...] the age of consent should be lowered. It certainly should not be as high as 17 or 16. Reasonable people can disagree over whether is should be as low as 14. Fifteen would seem like an appropriate compromise."

[...] the Supreme Court's recognition of a young woman's rights to choose abortion-without interference from her parents or the state-suggests a degree of autonomy that seems inconsistent with making it a felony to have sex with a mature, consenting 16-year-old.

Dershowitz tweeted on July 29, 2019 that he stands by his op-ed. Interestingly, the tweet received almost 8,000 Likes. 

The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon: Teen Prostitutes in London

On this blog, I've written about teen prostitution in Japan, and in The Allure of Nymphets, I wrote about teen prostitution at the turn of the 20th century in the United States, but this will be my first full foray into teen prostitution in Europe.

"The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon" was a series of shocking Pall Mall Gazette articles written in 1885 by W.T. Stead about the proliferation of teen prostitution in Victorian England. Here are some highlights lowlights:

Part I

W.T. Stead estimated that London had approximately 50,000 prostitutes. Stead's concern wasn't prostitution itself, but the fact that many of the prostitutes were early teens, poor and were being taken advantage of by the rich. Furthermore, Stead opined that the issue was "an affair for the moralist, not for the legislator."  However, as a result of Stead's exposé, he was arrested and the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 raised the age of consent from 13 to 16.

Stead witnessed the following crimes that were "constantly and systematically" committed in London by "the noblest and the meanest of mankind, the saviours and the destroyers of their race, [by] spending hours alternatively in brothels and hospitals, in the streets and in refuges...":

1. The sale and purchase and violation of children
2. The ("full operation") procuration (and "violation") of virgins ("mostly of tender age")
3. The entrapping and ruin of women
4. The international slave trade in girls
5. Atrocities, brutalities, and unnatural crimes

Stead related that the above crimes were committed with "almost absolute impunity" and that the "arrangements for procuring, certifying, violating...and disposing" of the nymphets was efficiently simple. However, organized crime gangs didn't run underage prostitution rings. The nymphets were procured, just like in present day Japan, mostly by "the seduction of individuals or by the temptation which well-dressed vice (e.g. money, fashion, etc.) can offer the poor."

One of the reasons for the impunity was that the police were often well aware of the nymphet prostitution. For example, an experienced officer confided in Stead that "...a general article, I mean, not a mere prostitute tricked out as a virgin, but a girl who had never been seduced" could be obtained for £20 (Approximately, £1,859.36 today).

Typically, the unsuspecting nubile nymphets would be summoned by "keepers of brothels" or experienced nymphets to rooms where wealthy ephebophiles would be waiting to take their virginity. 

The officer correctly stated that that scenario will continue, "...as long as men have money, procuresses are skillful, and women are weak and inexperienced."

Part 2

In part two of the exposé, Stead wrote that because the age of consent was 13, the unsuspecting teen prostitutes "... were almost always very young children between the ages of thirteen and fifteen" and were "fair game for dissolute men."

Stead elaborated on how the girls were seduced or went willingly into teen prostitution:

1. A girl would be told by a procuress or an experienced teen prostitute that if she met " ...a rich gentlemen she would get lots of money." 

2. Other nymphets would temp teens with "promises of dress and money". 

3. Young maidens would be promised marriage only to be "deserted" after their virginity was taken. 

4. Some teens became full-time prostitutes to escape "sheer poverty and absolute despair" 

5. Other teens became part-time prostitutes to supplement "scanty wages".

6. Advertisements were placed for housekeepers (i.e., brothel-keepers), which were often answered by unsuspecting young girls from country villages. 

Here are two examples from two early teen virgins, 15 and 13, respectively, whom were brought into prostitution by experienced teen prostitutes:

It was about two months since I was seduced. A friend of mine, Jane B––, met me one evening in the street near our house, and asked me if I would go for a walk with her. I said yes, and she proposed to come and have an ice at the very restaurant in which we are now sitting. "It is such a famous shop for ices," she said, "and perhaps we shall see my uncle." I did not know her uncle, nor did I think anything about it, but I walked down to Leicester-square to the restaurant. She asked me to come upstairs to a sitting-room, where we had some ices and some cake. After a time a gentleman came in, whom she said was her uncle; but I found out afterwards he was no more her uncle than I was. He asked us to have some wine and something to eat, and we sat eating and drinking. I had never tasted wine before, but he pressed it on me, and I took one glass and then another, until I think I had four glasses. My head got very queer, and I hardly knew what I did. Then my friend said, ."Annie, you must come upstairs now." "What for?" I said. "Never mind what for," she said ; "you will get lots of money." My head was queer; I did not care what I did, but I remember thinking that it was after no good this going upstairs. She insisted, however, and I went upstairs. The man she called her uncle followed us. She began to undress me. "What are you doing that for?" Isaid. "You shan't undress me. I don't want to be undressed here." I struggled, and then everything went dizzy. I remember nothing more till I woke and found that I had been undressed and put in bed. The man was in bed with me. I screamed, and begged him to go away. He paid no heed to me, and began to hurt me dreadfully. "Keep quiet, you silly girl," said ––––, who stood by the bed; "you will get lots of money." Oh, I was frightened, and the man hurt me so much! But I could do nothing. When it was all over the man gave her £4 (£372 today). She gave me half and kept the other half for herself, as her pay for getting me seduced. I do not know who the man was, and I have never seen him since.

One night a girl I knew came and spoke to me. "Will you come and see a gentleman?" she said. "Me see a gentleman–what do you mean?" said I. "Oh, I forgot," she says; "will you come and take a walk?" I had no objection, so we went for a walk. After a while, she proposed we should go into a house in P–– street and get something to eat. We went in, and after we had been there a little time in came a gentleman. He sat down and talked a bit, and then my friend says, "Take off your things, Lizzie." "No, I won't," I said. "Why should I take off my things?" "Don't be a fool," says she, "and do as I tell you, you will get lots of money;" and she began to undress me. I objected, but she was older than I, and stronger, and the man took her side. "Now," she said after she had undressed me, "get into bed with you." "What for?" says I, "for I had no idea what she meant." "Do as I tell you, you little fool, or I will knock you[r] head off you. This gentleman will give you lots of money, pounds and pounds, if you are good; but he won't give you a penny if you are stupid." And she half forced me, half persuaded me, to get into bed. Then the gentleman got into bed. I did not know what he wanted. I was very frightened, and was crying bitterly. Then he began to hurt me, and I yelled at the top of my voice. Madame who kept the house heard me scream, and she came running up. "Vot is you a doin to that von leetle girl ?" she asked. "Nothing," said the man; "she has only run a pin into her foot;" and my friend whispered, "Only keep quiet and you shall have it all. I will give you all the money. But mind you won't get off, no matter how you scream." Madame went away, and the man finished me. He gave me £3 (£279 today).

Interestingly, Stead noted that despite their entry point, the girls often returned voluntarily to teen prostitution.

Part 3

As sort of a side note, Stead mentioned that despite the fact that there weren't a lot of prostitutes below the age of thirteen, according to the Report of the Dwellings Commission, "There are children, many children, who are ruined before they are thirteen; but the crime is one phase of incest..."

However, there were approximately 10,000 juvenile prostitutes between the ages of thirteen and fifteen in "Christian England".

Stead was an investigative journalist and didn't restrict his investigating to mere interviews, he went into brothels to get first hand accounts of the affairs. For example, after the keeper at an upscale brothel in the West end "...strenuously denied that they had any such article in the house", Stead was introduced to "a lovely child between fourteen and fifteen, tall for her age, but singularly attractive in her childish innocence".

Stead stressed that since the age of consent was thirteen, it was extremely difficult to prosecute rapists. For instance, a fifty-year-old man "violated more than a dozen children just over thirteen, whom he had enticed into backyards by promises of sweetmeats" but wasn't prosecuted until he was "fortunately caught with a girl under thirteen, and was promptly punished."

On the advice of Dr. Lowndes, "a medical man", Stead (incorrectly) championed for an increase in the age of consent, because "so few girls are really aptae-viro, physically and medically, till long after thirteen."

As previously mentioned, many seduced teens ironically volunteered to return to prostitution due to the "promises of dress and money". Consequently, they were "...qmore difficult to deal with than women, because they are made familiar with sin while so young that the modesty that is so natural to a woman they never attain."

Part 4

Part four of the report was an exposé of police corruption. Stead related that a number of policemen took bribes to look the other way, facilitated and/or partook in the services of the teen prostitutes.

Clearly, teen prostitution is still going on today and rich ephebophiles are taking advantage of the business (no pun intended) and it should be clear that raising the age of consent isn't a viable solution. Some would recommend even lowering the age of consent, but making pre-marital sex a felony. That way we would have more harems and less brothels. The fact of the matter is that ephebophiles are going to have sex with nymphets one way or the other. The only other "option" is teen pornography, which with the invention of the webcam has become the new brothel.

ARE ALL MEN PEDOPHILES? (2013): No But They're Hebephiles\Ephebophiles\Nympholepts

Here are some highlights and lowlights from the controversial documentary 

Are All Men Pedophiles? (2013):

Studies have shown that teen sex is the most searched for type of pornography on the Internet.

The age that you first find the opposite sex attractive doesn't change, but it expands. For example, when you’re a teen you find teen girls attractive and as you age, teen girls remain attractive.  

The age of consent ranges from 9 to 20-years-old around the world. Interestingly, there’s no minimum age of consent in Saudi Arabia and Oman.

During the Stone Age, the average lifespan was approximately 30 years. And during the Neolithic age, which was between the Stone and Bronze Ages, the lifespan was 20 years; therefore, sex and childbearing couldn't be postponed for very long past puberty. Despite the fact that the lifespan of humans has increased dramatically, it’s still healthier to have a baby sooner than later.

Anthropological studies conducted by Napoleon Chagnon on primitive societies suggest that the average man finds 16-year-old females the most sexually attractive.

Mary was 12 or 15 when she gave birth to Jesus and the prophet Muhammed of Islam (صلى الله عليه وسلم) married Aisha when she was 6 and consummated the marriage when she was 9.

Bar Mitswa is when Jewish boys turn 13 and are considered men. And a Bat Mitswa is when Jewish girls turn 12 and are considered women.

As far back at 6000 BC, the average age of pregnancy was 13-years-old. Currently, the average age of pregnancy in western society is between the ages of 21 and 23.

Girls begin puberty at approximately 10-years-old and they reach maturity when puberty ends at approximately 16-years-old. However, western society has set the legal age at 18-years-old, which is when young men reach maturity. Consequently, 16-year-old girls are more sexually and mentally mature than 16-year-old boys, which is why girls seek older partners and that explains why the average woman is younger than her male partner.

Biologically, humans start experimenting with sexual intercourse at the age of 13-years-old.

The basis for the legal age being set at 18 is based on education. High school education ends around the age of 18. Consequently, underage sex is shunned, because it interferes with education.

However, western society has a fascination with teen girls, which is visible in the fashion industry and media. For example, the average age of a budding high fashion model is between the ages of 12 and 16. The average age of fashion models is 16. 16 is a special age because most women tend to gain wait upon reaching 16. New models are rarely chosen after the age of 16. We don’t need biology to tell us that 16-year-old girls are ready for sex, because the way they’re portrayed as sexual beings in the media should suffice as evidence.

Couric reported on Katie Couric's Notebook, “Half of girls between 14 and 19 confessed to having had sex at least once.”

More than 20% of American teen girls admit to sending nude photos (i.e., sexting).

Some cultures (e.g., in Africa, South America, India, etc.) that haven’t been affected by western standards, girls still get married at an early age. And in Japanese society the attraction to teenage girls is a “widespread cultural phenomenon (e.g., lolicon)” However, there is no society in the world that encourages sex with children before puberty.

There’s a difference between the general public term for pedophilia and the technical professional term of pedophilia. The public’s definition is associated with someone who’s sexually attracted to girls under the age of 18; however, the clinical definition of pedophilia is:

1. A sexual preference for pre-pubertal or early pubertal children 
2. For six months or more the person has acted on those urges or suffers from distress as a result of having the urges
3. And the individual must be at least 16-years-old and at least five years older than the subject of desire

For example, hebephilia is when a man is attracted to adolescents or girls whom are approximately between the ages of 12 to 16-years-old; therefore, high school teachers who have sex with their students are not pedophiles. Since high school students have reached puberty, it’s considered hebophilia and the teachers are hebophiles - not pedophilia. 

The number of male teachers in one European country is a meager 1 in 8. The dropped is attributed to a fear that many male teachers will be accused of pedophilia. The misunderstanding between pedophilia and hebephilia has caused an unnecessary backlash against men. Men are not allowed to sit in playgrounds alone [e.g., A park that I frequently pass in Manhattan has a sign posted that forbids adult men from being in the park if they’re not accompanied by their own children.]

In an attempt to discourage pedophilia, Australia’s government has "banned" adult publications and films that feature women with "small breasts".

Child pornography is a $3 billion industry. 20% of all Internet pornography involves children under the age of 18; thus, since almost all men watch pornography, many men have been exposed to child pornography. However, it’s not considered child pornography when the images are used in the high fashion industry [or mainstream movies and high-brow art].

A 14-year-old New Jersey girl was accused of distributing child pornography after posting 30 explicit nude photographs of herself on the Internet.

Two Pennsylvanian girls who posted pictures of themselves in pajama bottoms and bra tops were charged with possessing child pornography and the distribution of child pornography. 

But 20% of teenagers in Western society admit to sexting, which translates to over 50,000,000 teens. That content could be considered child pornography even if the teen isn’t nude. In other words, any sexual activity, lewd conduct or erotic behavior that is exhibited by teens even when they're fully clothed could be considered child pornography. However, the average teen has no idea that they’re breaking the law. Consequently, 36% of child sex offenders in America are children.

Pedophilia will never be accepted by society, because it harms children, but sexual relations between adults and adolescents may eventually become re-accepted by modern society. 

Lastly from the documentary, we learned that hebephilia isn’t listed as a mental disorder, because finding teens attractive is normal and girls in puberty can understand lust unlike pre-pubertal girls.

"Young Girl" (1968): Teen Tries to Trick Man into Sexual Affair

"Young Girl" (1968) was written by Jerry Fuller and performed by Gary Puckett & The Union Gap. 

The song is about a man who was distraught after he discovered that the age of his love interest is below the age of consent. In an attempt to fight off the allure of a nymphet, he sang. Let's take a look at the song's lyrics:

In the chorus, the man shares that the nymphet has consumed his mind, he confesses his love for the teen, and adjures her to run away.

Young girl, get out of my mind

My love for you is way out of line

Better run, girl

You're much too young, girl

I would imagine that the charms he's referring to in the first verse are in reference to the nymphets charisma and her nubile body. The man is hurt by the news that, as determined by age-of-consent laws, his lover is too young. The song's setting is unclear, but imagine his pain if he discovered that his lover were 16, but he lived in Manhattan, where the age-of-consent is 17, instead of across the Hudson in New Jersey. And best believe, if the nymphet would have told the authorities that she did not lie about her age, she would have been believed. And as for the man? #rhetoricalquestion

With all the charms of a woman

You've kept the secret of your youth
You led me to believe
You're old enough
To give me love
And now it hurts to know the truth

Despite the plethora of evidence from fiction and non-fiction, most people will not (openly) admit that a nymphet would seduce a(n) (much) older man. As a matter of fact, most people openly opine that teens are incapable of seducing men.

Beneath your perfume and make-up

You're just a baby in disguise

And though you know

That it's wrong to be

Alone with me

That come on look is in your eyes

Here the man is expressing his difficulty with resisting the allure of a nymphet, because, despite the fact that their age-gap affair is consensual, he could get into a ton of trouble with the authorities while the young girl would be assumed innocent with no need to prove guilt. 

So hurry home to your mama
I'm sure she wonders where you are
Get out of here
Before I have the time
To change my mind
'Cause I'm afraid we'll go too far

Lastly, per the song's Wikipedia page:

• "Young Girl" is a Gold-certified single
• The song reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100
• And "Young Girl" reached No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart

Machine Gun Kelly Desired Teen Sex with Kendall Jenner

Machine Gun Kelly & Kendall Jenner (17)

Stephanie Soteriou reported for Buzzfeed News that "Machine Gun Kelly’s Resurfaced Comments About Then-Underage Kendall Jenner Have Sparked Huge Backlash". 

Soteriou related that in an interview with Fuse in 2013, Kelly, then 23, shared that he was not willing to "wait" until Kendall, then 17, was of legal age (in California).

“I don't care who my first celebrity crush was because right now it's Kendall Jenner.”

“God damn I've said that so many motherfucking times, I hope that I'm snagging that. Don't let me move to LA. Oof, I'm finding her."

Fuse asked Kelly if he were “counting down the days” until Kendall was 18 (i.e., Barely Legal in L.A.) to which Kelly replied impatiently: 

“I’m not waiting until she’s 18, I’ll go now. I’m 23, dog, I’m not like a creepy age, y’know what I’m saying? I’m 23, she’s 17, and she’s a celebrity. There’s no limits right there.”

In an attempt to justify his stance, Kelly related that Led Zeppelin's Robert Plant dated a 14-year-old and Guns N' Roses' Axl Rose dated a 16-year-old and that Rose even wrote a song about the age-gap affair. 

“Robert Plant, who is one of the greatest lead singers ever, dated a girl who was 14,” Machine Gun Kelly continued. “Axl Rose [pictured below] was one of the biggest badasses ever, dated a girl who was 16 and wrote a song on his first album about the girl that was 16.”

Jimmy Page (24) & Lori Maddux (14)

In reference to the lyrics, "One day soon you're gonna reach sixteen\Painted lady in the city of lies" on Led Zeppelin's "Sick Again", Robert Plant shared in Dave Lewis' The Complete Guide to the Music of Led Zeppelin that the lyrics were not inspired (solely) by Lori Maddux but that they were inspired by a number of nymphet groupies whom the band met during their 1972 US tour. 

And Slash wrote in Slash that Axl Rose had sex with 15-year-old Michelle in the loft before Michelle "freaked out intensely". In addition, per Mick Wall's Last of the Giants: The True Story of Guns N’ Roses, after Michelle freaked out she was: "A naked, underage girl running away from adult men [Slash and Rose] along one of the busiest streets in Los Angeles [...]"

Contrary to Soteriou's reporting, it appears that Kelly's comments didn't cause a "huge" backlash; however, there were some comments posted on social media that didn't condone Kelly's stance. 

But maybe what Kelly was trying to express is his frustration with the inconsistent age of consent laws in the US. For instance, the age of consent in Houston, TX, Kelly's hometown, like New York City, is 17; thus, Kendall would have been of legal age in that regard. (Note: The age of consent across the Hudson from Manhattan is 16.)

Kylie Jenner (17)

But, Kendall and the Kardashian clan may have agreed with Kelly, because Kylie, then 17, had an (illegal) age-gap sexual relationship with Tyga, then 25, which was was condoned, specifically, by Khloe Kardashian whom, per The Washington Post, opined:

"Kylie is not a normal 17-year-old. You’re not gonna say, 'Hey, so what are you doing this weekend?' and have her say, 'Having a slumber party at my girlfriend’s' or 'Going to prom.' That’s not what Kylie does. Kylie is taking business meetings and bought her first house, or she’s going on a private plane with Karl Lagerfeld to take a meeting. That’s not even what people do in their 30s. It’s a rare circumstance, so let’s treat this as a special case.”

In the end, (ultra) orthodox Jews and practicing Muslims would say that they're all putting the cart before the horse, because one will never know, but if Kelly, à la Elvis, would have asked for Kendall's hand in marriage, to Megan Fox's dismay, the Kardashian's may have planned a lavish age-gap wedding.