TEDx | Pedophilia is a natural sexual orientation

I agree with you. 18 (or whatever it is where you live), is simply an arbitrary legal boundary. The argument for sleeping with a 17yo being wrong while sleeping with an 18yo is perfectly fine boils down to the lousy argument "It's the law!" Due to personal variations, the 17yo could be more mature and responsible than the 18yo!

 

Another example, my husband is almost 32 and I'm 25. So... if we had met when I was, say, 16, and he was 23, that would have been considered wrong for us to be together. But now that we are older, its somehow okay, even though we are the same people. I just think the whole age of consent thing and judging people with age gap relationships is weird and theres too much gray to just make blanket statements about what's wrong and right, unless we are talking about legit children who have no business being involved in anything sexual at all.

 

Absolutely! Trust me, never in a million years did I think I would date a 16 year old when I was 18. It's only a two year gap, but still. I wouldn't have dated any of the other 15 year old boys I knew, and even my boyfriends best friend at the time was someone I considered to be my little brother, but people are different. There are a lot of variables.

 

Okay.

I guess everyone has different comfort levels outside of legal boundaries.

Are you two comfortable with an 80 year old with a 16 year old?

Is there a limit beyond puberty that you're not comfortable with?

I guess I'm not really worried about ethics or morals. I'm more concerned with things like what does a 30+ year old have in common with a 16 year old and why risk prison because of it?

 

Here in Canada the age of consent is 16, but the law includes a "close-in-age exception," meaning 14- and 15-year-olds can have sex with someone who is less than five years older.

 

Well that's not really the right question. Am I comfortable with it? Not particularly, that sounds a little weird to me and I wouldn't do it. But do I want it to be illegal? Not sure. If they're both happy and in love and consenting, then how is me finding it a bit gross important enough to ban them from doing it?

I can think of plenty of things they could have in common. Have you never met a mature 16 year old, or an immature 30 year old? When I dated that 33 year old guy, honestly, part of the reason we broke up was because he was a little immature for my taste. And he was 14 years older than me.

 

You make great points and I'm not disagreeing with anything you've said.

I'm just curious.

Thank you for your perspective.

 

Ecclesiastes