Adulthood is the ever-shrinking period between childhood and old age. It is the apparent aim of modern industrial societies to reduce this period to a minimum. – Thomas Szasz
A few months ago, when Amsterdam raised the legal age for prostitution from 18 to 21, one sex worker commented that this was a good idea because a woman of 18 is “still a child”. Now, I’m not going to rehash the obvious arguments which made the rounds when the prohibitionist fad of raising the legal drinking age to 21 seized America like some kind of suicidal mania; nor will I point out that any sane and reasonable person must recognize that selecting leaders, driving a car, getting married and joining the military all have more serious effects on both the individual and society as a whole than the specific reasons one might choose to have sex; nor explain that narrowing a legal bottleneck invariably results in more people doing whatever-it-is illegally (except insofar as I just mentioned them). Instead, I’d like to briefly consider this bizarre legal fiction that a person capable of reproduction can nonetheless be a “child” in any meaningful way, and to wonder how far this trend can go before it collapses into complete absurdity.
The delusion that some adults are actually children is a fairly recent one, dating back only to late 19th century. In “The Shape of the Spoon” I quoted psychologist Robert Epstein on why it’s so spectacularly stupid and destructive:
…the whole culture collaborates in artificially extending childhood, primarily through the school system and restrictions on labor…This infantilization makes many young people angry or depressed…we have completely isolated young people from adults and created a peer culture. We stick them in school and keep them from working in any meaningful way, and if they do something wrong we put them in a pen with other “children.” In most nonindustrialized societies, young people are integrated into adult society as soon as they are capable, and there is no sign of teen turmoil. Many cultures do not even have a term for adolescence…But [in the West] young people can’t own things, can’t sign contracts, and they can’t do anything meaningful without parental permission—permission that can be withdrawn at any time…American teens are subjected to more than 10 times as many restrictions as mainstream adults, twice as many restrictions as active-duty U.S. Marines, and even twice as many as incarcerated felons…What’s more, since 1960, restrictions on teens have been accelerating…
I’m not saying that young people should be given adult responsibilities at about 13 as they once were, and I certainly don’t think Epstein is either; what I am saying is that referring to teenagers as “children” and pretending that label represents anything other than a legal fiction is not only counterproductive and generative of psychopathology, but also inevitably gives rise to the evil absurdities I regularly mock by comparing them to young Billy Batson turning instantly into a super-powered adult with the magic word “Shazam!” The idea that equal-to-four-year-olds suddenly become equal-to-forty-year-olds at a mystic ritual moment is idiotic in every respect, but nowhere is it more ridiculous than in the area of sex: “…it is the hormones of puberty that drive young people to have sex, not knowledge or culturally-induced ‘sexualization’, yet Americans are committed to the self-destructive delusion that if we keep teens in ignorance about sex they’ll stay ‘innocent’ and never think of having it themselves…” That quote is from “Too Young To Know”, wherein I address the issue of prostitution by legal minors:
There is no material difference between sex for compensation and sex for social reasons except that those who fall into the latter are less likely to use condoms or good judgment. So, the state needs to pick an age of consent and stick to it, thus eliminating criminalization of motives for having sex. This is not to say that the state shouldn’t set some higher age at which a brothel or escort service can legally hire a girl, as long as the state recognizes that doing so means that the only sex work an underage teen can do will be on the street, and that the law isn’t going to stop her if that’s what she intends to do…
But obviously the rulers of Amsterdam are far wiser than some sex-addled harlot, and obviously have some foolproof magical means of absolutely preventing women below 21 from working, just as they effectively stop every single “illegal” whore from doing so now.
Ahem.
Anyhow, is there actually any factual basis to the notion that some biological adults are somehow childlike in any way that could be reasonably declared a valid cause for restricting their rights to some degree? Well, kind of, but not in any sense where the numbers 18 or 21 would be significant. A lot of brain research suggests the frontal lobes aren’t fully mature until about 25, so maybe we should prohibit university-age people from voting, drinking, marrying or doing meaningful work (most especially enlisting in the military). But still other research suggests the brain isn’t fully mature until the 30s or even 40s, so perhaps we had better declare anyone below 40 “still a child”. Or maybe that should only apply to men; a recent highly-publicized “study” by television network Nickelodeon (which I’m sure was conducted with unimpeachably-rigorous scientific methodology) trumpeted that while women mature at 32, men don’t do so until 43. Obviously, we need to declare people younger than those ages “juveniles”, restrict their sexual and labor choices and try them in special juvenile courts.
The fact of the matter is, the brain keeps changing throughout life; while it’s getting more powerful in some respects it’s weakening in others, and any increase in maturity after 30 is offset by a loss of adaptability and plasticity. It is the height of fatuity to declare that the rights of some biological adults should be restricted due to incomplete brain development, because some fail to attain by 50 the cognitive abilities others have at 15. The only fair measure of adult competence is experience, and the only way to gain that experience is by doing; that cannot be accomplished in a playpen. Perhaps we need to return to the medieval practice of dividing growth into thirds: people are given some limited responsibilities at 7, assume self-governance at 14 and take on full citizenship at 21. But however we divide it, one thing is clear: only an imbecile equates a person of 16 with one of 12 or 6, and no law grounded in such imbecility is worthy of obedience or even serious consideration.
When I enlisted in the U.S. Army and went to Basic Training in February 2003, there was a 17 year old in my company whose parents legally emancipated him to enlist in the American Army. I met a British man who was a contractor in Afghanistan in November 2009 who was born in 1968 and whose parents emancipated him to enlist in the British Army at age 16; yet, he stayed in the British Army for 10 years until age 26. All countries allow one to enlist in their militaries at age 18 to the best of my knowledge, and in the past the age in which one could enlist was younger than age 18 in most if not all nations. ABSURDITY ENSUES!!! Do you think Holland or Amsterdam any other country or legal jurisdiction which restricts what age whores can work to 21 or older will allow parents to legally emancipate their children at age 18, 19 or 20 to work as prostitutes?
In the late 1800’s, my great grandmother came over from Ireland to work as a maid in the UK. She was 14. She was following in the footsteps of her older sister. At 17, she married the greengrocer. I doubt she considered herself a child.
People are different.
Still, I would have concerns about a young person doing sex work as it is now, illegal. The illegality prevents the sex worker from having the support networks they need. If sex work were legal, I would feel differently. If sex workers could form unions, I’d think on if differently.
I remember how scary it was figuring my way through it all. It’s not easy having to do so on your own. You have to learn how to protect yourself from being cheated, abused, how to recognize STD’s and avoid them. How to position and market yourself, the professional level and reputation you want,. That’s a lot for someone of any age. Without any help, or access to role models, and with having to watch for cops every minute, it’s very difficult.
Prostitution is NOT illegal in the UK…Soliciting and living off anothers immoral earnings is illegal but the act of selling sex is not…I think we have America to thank for this common myth, where it is illegal,apart from Nevada I believe…
Maggie, wouldn’t you say that the current goal of Dutch politicians is to recriminalize the sex trade? Every new restriction leads to the possibility the restriction will be violated, and every time a restriction is violated it leads to tsk, tsking about that awful sex trade.
So, when you inevitably have 18-20 year olds illegally working in the sex trade it gives the politicians an opportunity to complain. Also, it gives the police an excuse to harass even legal workers that they didn’t have before.
Sure, the restriction was sold on the artificial extension of childhood that the First World seems to love, but I think that in general they just don’t like the sex trade in the Netherlands anymore, for whatever reason.
Generally, European countries prefer legalization (i.e. the act itself is legal, but many practices involved in it aren’t) to full-bore, hypocritical American criminalization; that way the politicians can have their doxies without actually breaking the law. So though I think it’s unlikely that the Netherlands wants American-style criminalization, many of its rulers seem to want a much more restricted whore caste than it has now: ideally, they’d probably like prostitutes to be wage-slaves working for the government, totally-controlled licensed career bureaucrats. But since they aren’t going to get that, they want to make the whole thing as unpleasant and restrictive and vulnerable to police “gotchas” as possible.
Right, american style criminalization seems to be an exception, though chilling stuff coming out of Ireland lately too.
And yet … any male or female who is aged 17 can join the military in that country. Oh wait – silly me, the armed forces of the Netherlands isn’t actually a fighting force … more like a social laboratory for political correctness.
As a CMC on a cruiser – I used to lament the fact that the drinking age was 21 in the U.S. In most countries we pulled in to – it was 18.
When a military member finds himself in a country with a drinking age of 18 – he can drink unless his commanding officer forbids it in writing.
Initially – I had the CO forbid it in writing – it did not make sense to me for a young Sailor to LEARN how to drink alcohol in a foreign country like Mexico where he doesn’t speak the language and cops have a dubious reputation.
However, this prohibition wasn’t tenable for me for very long – and I found the same arguments launched at me that I had thrown out at CMC meetings in San Diego when the Admiral raised the on-base drinking age to 21 there (when he didn’t have to). I also found myself taking kids to Captain’s Mast for getting caught drinking ashore when it was permissible by the host country – and these kids had not drank irresponsibly – just got caught with a drink in their hand.
That was prolly the only time I had to go back to the crew and apologize and say … “Hey I fucked up big time with that one – don’t blame the CO – it was all me!”
I let ’em drink after that. And really, I had only a few minor problems and I was surprised I had previously seen a need to put so much effort into prohibiting it before.
But I do believe that we need to restore 18 as the drinking age – that is the drinking age in most of the countries of the world – and it’s a good age to do it.
It’s not even the drinking age in most countries. It’s the age to buy alcohol. Drinking age is usually lower, and often doesn’t exist if the person drinking is accompanied by an adult who’s buying. As for punishments, they generally fall on the seller, since buying alcohol while underage isn’t a crime, but selling alcohol to underaged folk is.
In Britain, the drinking age, at home, supervised by parents, is five.
To drink while being served a meal (e.g. in a restaurant) you have to be 14 (an over-18 has to buy for you).
To drink in public (where legal) or in a bar or pub, you have to be 18, as also to purchase alcohol.
A number of other countries have a lower age to purchase lower-alcohol drinks (beer and wine) than to buy spirits, often 14 (e.g. France) or 16.
No matter what decisions are made, the age of Majority os going to be arbitrary. Even if we (Gods forbid! What a mess!) decided to have some system of tests decode each individual separately, for each issue, it would STILL be arbitrary.
I am, in general,of the opinion that the age of majority should be once single age, to cut down on the general absurdity. I think society would be well advised to tell MADD “You’ve give off the deep end, even your founder doesn’t agree with you anymore, go climb a tree” and drop the drinking age again … not to mention reign in the “Parents who host lose the most” horse sh*t.
Writing this gave me a VERY subversive idea;
What if, as a principle of Law, the consequence of trying a minor as an adult was that, henceforward (and regardless of verdict) he had to be treated as a legal adult from then forward?
Broadly, this trend to nitpick the age of adulthood, and to infantilize people who are generally considered adult or near-adult, is a mark of the would-be ruling class of the moment. So far as I am concerned, the progress of civilization can be measured by the degree to which the common people can tell their so-called betters to piss off. And I note the the Planners, the Intellectuals, and the socialist parasites (not the welfare recipients, I hasten to note, but the bureaucrats that RUN the system) HATE leaving people alone to make their own godsdamned mistakes.
F*cking would-be Aristos.
I really like this idea of “once treated as an adult, forever treated as an adult”.
Yeah, I’m liking it too. For one thing, it make the prosecutors THINK before charging a minor as an adult.
I’d go one step further: Anyone who graduates from high school — or passes an equivalency exam — becomes an adult for all purposes.
Of course, this would require constitutional change in the US, at least if it included the right to vote (there’s an amendment banning literacy tests because they were once abused for racial reasons).
Another irreversible trend. Even starting to see “grooming” (colloquially, if not legally…yet) being applied when a man is trying to win over a woman in her 20s or 30s. I think the only indisputable age of majority for women is around menopause…though soon after they probably become “senior citizens vulnerable to exploitation”
That’s the (unanswerable) question I LOOOOOONG to ask the Neofeministas; If women are so susceptible to exploitation, why are they allowed to vote?
Limbaugh once joked that things started going downhill after women were given the right to vote …
Personally – even though he says he was joking – I believe he was right. Now, that doesn’t mean that MEN wouldn’t have led us down this big government path themselves by now – since after WWII American men began to turn into pussies.
But I do believe that too many women vote with their maternal instincts and that is always going to result in a “provider government” – because women are wired by nature to seek providers.
There’s an old Science Channel documentary on the science of sex appeal. I watch it every time it comes on and I just marvel at how little we humans have control of ourselves. Men, when we smell vaginal secretions (even in low levels that we can’t conciously detect) – now suddenly can’t distinguish between a good-looking female and a not-so-good looking one (they all look hot to us when we whiff the vir-jay-jay!)
Women, were constantly looking for traits in men that indicated good providers. A hot guy’s picture was placed on a sheet of paper with his salary at the bottom … $22,000 per year. The women rated him anywhere from 1 to 5 – pretty sad for Mr. Chippendale there. An ugly guy was put on a piece of paper with his $235,000 salary – and suddenly the ugly fat guy becomes a TEN in … LOOKS!!
I think the basic purpose of government is to protect people from outside attack and harrassment – and maternal policies tend to grow govenment, which has a deliterious effect on the security of the tribe – which is why, after I install myself as King of Sweeden – we won’t have any elections for a very long while until I get that place repopulated with alpha males who get it.
Margaret Thatcher was one woman who GOT IT. But then again – she’s hated by most women (and for that matter most men too. Although, Mick Jagger loved her …
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rolling-stones/10114980/Sir-Mick-Jagger-Margaret-Thatcher-didnt-change-for-anyone.html
Because under true feminism, all women are helpless children in need of rescue.
Umm… wait…
Saying that voting via emotionalism started with women getting the vote is too simple, and ignores one hell of a lot of male emotionalism that happened prior. You can’t tell me that the Preston Brooks – Charles Sumner incident was an exercise of cool logic.
Well you’re right there of course but back in those days He-Men could often overcome the votes of the “sensitive” males.
Women voting has completely goon-rushed us!
I say most of this tongue and cheek – I can’t really blame women for our woes.
Oh please. Men don’t vote with emotion? Oh, so that’s why, in times past, the slightest insult or slight was enough to rush us off to war. why men fought for “honor” leaving devastation behind.
Women are way more sensible, and less affected by hormones than men.
Playing devil’s advocate: A good case can be made that the 20th century was one of ever-increasing nanny-statism as a result of women getting the right to vote. Certainly the Suffragettes and the prohibition/temperance movement were mostly the same people.
By the nature of things, cspscholfield is right; no matter how you define an ‘age of majority’ ( for any act), there are going to be people who don’t fit into the correct slot. Those who are younger and yet quite competent; and those who are older biologically but haven’t grown up emotionally. The best any government can do is set an age where the large majority of people who are at that age or older qualify by most standards as competent to make their own mistakes. And a system that can handle the exceptions (which is the most difficult part of any beauracracy).
Reblogged this on Wolf Howls and commented:
The more we treat teens like children, the more childish they become.
I find it very disconcerting that the age to be considered an adult keeps rising. Will we someday not be adults until age 30, 40? How high can it go before it just gets ridiculous?
I think right now the “soft limit” of college graduation is already ridiculous. (18, 19, 20, 3 years of semi-childhood with a “transition year” at 21)
I seriously believe it is our ‘Educational Industrial Complex’. There isnt enough time here but my research has consistently shown that the extended schooling now moving into the arena of phd’s. School is not for responsibility–it is for future responsibility, future employment, future career, etc. The second is the ‘Children’s Entertainment Industrial Complex’, but we’ll leave that rant for another time.
Playing devil’s advocate here: I wonder if at least some of the people who favor lowering the age of consent are pedophiles?
Yeah, and I’m sure some of those favoring lowering the drinking age are teen alcoholics, and some in favor of loosening gun restrictions are serial killers. But all three of those groups are tiny in comparison to those who simply realize that overcriminalization has created the American police state which incarcerates 5x as large a fraction of its citizens as the average developed country.
Oh, come on, there’s no need to be snide. In any case, conflating pedophiles (criminals) with teen drinkers (silly kids) really doesn’t make sense, even when done jokingly.
I asked the question out of genuine concern. Oftentimes, these weirdos and freakazoids cloak their interest in children by using certain words and phrases, such as “freedom for children”, or some such nonsense.
Overcriminalization? American police state? Isn’t that kind of melodramatic? Look what’s going on in Egypt right now: Morsi is on the verge of getting kicked out; the Egyptian people want a democracy, not a dictator running a police state. Look at nations such as North Korea and Iran – scary places to live.
If you don’t think we’re in a police state, you mustn’t have been reading many of my Links columns. The fact that there are fatter guys doesn’t mean a 300-pound guy isn’t fat.
Yes, there are worse places to live than the United States: much worse, in some cases. However, I hardly see that as an excuse to lower our standards. Just because it could be worse doesn’t mean we should stand by and let it become worse.
Yes, I agree.
The day the age of consent is lowered is the day parents will start to educate their children about sex and making correct choices.
That wouldn’t be a bad thing.
Depends on what age you had in mind for children to come of age.
And it would be an excellent thing if more parents took a proactive role in teaching their children about sex education. All too many parents complain about sex education in schools, yet it’s these same parents who don’t want to discuss sex with their kids at all.
Those parents are the kind who want to keep their kids ignorant of sex till their wedding day.
Very true. I have been acquainted with parents like that; it’s disturbing to think there are so many parents with that kind of attitude.
You’d think this wouldn’t be the case in 2013. Sad. On Jul 1, 2013 6:15 PM, “The Honest Courtesan” wrote:
> ** > silkyvelvet commented: “Very true. I have been acquainted with parents > like that; it’s disturbing to think there are so many parents with that > kind of attitude.”
The same parents who “took charge of their sexuality” can’t imagine that their precious coddled little ones would actually do the same thing.
What are they wanting to lower the AoC too? If they want it to be five, yeah, here’s looking at you, Mr. Pedo. If they want it to be fifteen, not so much.
Actually, I doubt a pedophile would be interested in a fifteen-year-old sexually, what with her, you know, bewbs and ug, hair. Really, would a pedophile want to fuck this? Miss Kinski was fifteen years old when she filmed that scene for maybe the worst movie Hammer ever made.
I really enjoyed this article. But I would emphasis that the brain and its workings are still just out of scientific infancy. To say anything defining about the brains plasticity, learning ability, maturity are all very suspect. But the weight of past thinking will propel many myths about what we can do and about our brains.
—–
This artificial extension of childhood has many causes but we can all agree that it isnt for the better, irrespective of our increased lifespans. But the final fact still glares at us that we all conveniently squash; ‘children’s’ bodies become capable of reproduction in pre-teens. What did nature intend that we have altered by society, and keep extending the age of responsibility and maturity? Why do we keep raising the bar on maturity and participation in the adult world? Why have we turned our offspring into slaves rather than members of our society? Mostly through school. You have no rights, and are constantly required to submit, obey and stifle. And we claim we want original thinkers.
I suspect it’s because relatively old men (like me) don’t want to have to compete for employment with an even bigger pool of workers.
Keep em in school until they start getting gray hairs like I’ve got! Mwhahaha….
Seriously though the system, at some point, decided it couldn’t absorb so many people so it put in a throttle to slow things down. Like most things it has less to do with the good of the individual, and more to do with the good of the system and its managers.
What does this have to do with sex? I didn’t start to become ambitious until I started having sex. Before that I was quite slothful, I had a place to live and a library card. Heaven! Before I started getting interested in those pesky girls! Then all of the sudden I wanted lots of money to make myself more flash.
So, the losing battle to suppress, clamp down, and divert the perfectly normal adult sex drive of these “children.” It also has the advantage of selling Xboxes and whatever it is female “child-women” waste their time on.
whatever it is female “child-women” waste their time on
Perfume and nail polish. 😀
Actually, the term adolescent has been widely misappropriated to refer to teenagers in general, and this has something to do with the fact that puberty used to start at thirteen or fourteen, way back when. But these days, most girls are completely finished with puberty by thirteen or fourteen, boys by fourteen or fifteen. In fact, as far as boys go, a recent study published in the journal Pediatrics, one praised across the board by pediatric endocrinologists, found that the average age at which boys start puberty is between nine and ten, depending on race (note: this means that boys attain the ability to ejaculate by that age, but still look essentially preadolescent; a voice change and all that other stuff comes around thirteen).
In any case, I think the age-of-consent for penetrative sex should be set at thirteen, where it’s set at in Japan and Spain. As far as non-penetrative acts go,
keeping in mind trauma theory doesn’t hold up to data amalgamation through meta-analytic methods, I’d say that preexisting stalker and sexual assault laws
would work just fine in cases where force is evident.
Are you sure about that? Puberty “starts” when they can ejaculate – and the average is 9-10 now?
I would think a good landmark for starting puberty would be when a boy starts obsessively beating his dick like it owes him money. I didn’t do that at 9 or 10. For me, that started in the sixth grade at around age eleven. I remember this because I had a “girlfriend” named Regina and I used to fantasize about her during my “playtime” in the shower. I have her friended on Facebook even today – although she’s pretty obese – and a lesbian now. 🙁
Even so – I didn’t ejaculate for at least a couple of years – maybe 13 or 14 was when the hotdog gun shot it’s first rounds of mayo – and it surprised the shit out of me, especially after hundreds of “dry fires” for a coupld of years prior to that.
Sorry I’m wrong about that … three to five times a day for a year or two equals more like “thousands” of dry fires.
Here’s a link to an article about the study from the New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/20/health/puberty-starting-earlier-in-boys-new-study-suggests.html?pagewanted=all
Yeah that’s pretty wild. It seems almost a complete opposite though to what is happening with male testosterone levels – where studies have proven that men in the 70’s had higher average levels of the hormone than men of the same age today.
the hotdog gun shot it’s first rounds of mayo…
/facepalm
That’s a new euphemism for me, Krulac. Thanks. 😉
I never ejaculated until I was thirteen, and then it only occurred while sleeping. I couldn’t do it while awake until my mid-twenties. (I’m sure that must’ve been a psychological thing, but I have no idea what it was exactly.)
Pubic hair and voice-changing began when I was ten.
I know these things vary with individuals, but having the ejaculation occur so long before anything else sounds completely wrong.
Reasons for earlier onset of puberty are thought to include abundant nutrition, lack of childhood illnesses, and sedentary lifestyle. The first two are definitely good things, and the third is NOT. It is going to take some societal change to counteract the tendency towards a sedentary lifestyle.
One thing which would help is for parents (and cops, and teachers, and CPS) to realize that no, there really ISN’T a child molester behind every tree. The world does not want to screw your little angel. Then kids could go outside and play even if Mommy or Daddy can’t stare at them ever last picosecond.
The next thing which will help is to restore recess in schools. Some schools still have it, and maybe you don’t really need “recess” by high school, but elementary and middle school should have recess, maybe even two or three of them. And PE, that would help.
Finally, computers and such are getting so small and rugged and capable of tracking movement and such that we can have video games in which you MOVE AROUND. Couple that with kids being able to go outside and play again, and you have the potential to have fit, healthy kids, and a little bit of delay in the average age of onset of puberty.
Maggie wrote in OP:
Common law long after the medieval period used a similar rule about the age when criminal liability attaches, and it is still the rule where statutes do not preempt common law. But most jurisdictions now have statues which are much nastier:
Younger than age 7, a person is irrebutably presumed to be incapable of forming mens rea. You couldn’t prosecute a child younger than 7 for a crime that requires mens rea, or intent to do the act with knowledge that it is unlawful.
Younger than age 14, a person is rebuttably presumed to be incapable of forming mens rea. But a jury could decide beyond reasonable doubt based on facts presented to them, that the defendant younger than 14 was actually capable of knowing the act was unlawful.
At age 14 or greater, a person is irrebuttably presumed capable of forming mens rea. The defendant is presumed capable, so the jury doesn’t get to decide capacity based on age.
Note that this is only about legal capacity to form intent to commit a crime because of age. This has nothing to do with incapacity due to mental illness or other causes. It also has nothing to do with any rights that accrue to persons because of age, such as the right to vote or drink or marry, or capacity to form contracts, or consent to sexual acts.
The legal age for prostitution has not yet been raised in Amsterdam. It might be quite soon, though, as it is to be debated by city council these days. But as yet, it’s not been finalized.
§ Upsides: It is amongst the best paid jobs on the Festival circuit, but if you’re doing it for the money alone you are doomed to fail. In extremely rare cases it can lead to Broadway, Hollywood and beyond… Penn & Teller, The Flying Karamazovs, and Harry Dean Anderson are great examples of famous performers who got their start amongst the wooden stages and hay bale seats. You can get almost as much adoration and adulation as your obviously frail little ego needs. Almost.
I really enjoyed this article. What struck me the most was your quote about how American teens are subject to more restrictions than a active-duty U.S. Marines. I hadn’t thought about it too much, but it is true that American teens are very sheltered. When I first entered college I was honestly a little overwhelmed at all the freedom I had to make my own choices and do what I wanted to do without first checking for permission or without someone else to tell me what I was doing was right.
The two girls with the binkies are cute, though I found the diapers to be a bit much.
The whole idea of adolescence, biologically and legally, is that it is a time of transition. So, for instance, you get a learner’s permit at fifteen (you can drive, but you have to have a licensed driver in the front seat next to you) and a driver’s license (drive all by your lonesome) at sixteen. You can (in some states, at least) have sex with somebody your own age at fourteen, but have to be sixteen to consent to sex with somebody who might’ve been honing his seduction skills since before you were born.
We not only keep trying to raise the Age of Shazam, but we ofttimes make it more of a Shazam. It’s as if we said you can’t get a driver’s license until you’re seventeen, but you also can’t have a learner’s permit and you can’t take driver’s ed and you can’t play driving video games or play with toy cars until you’re seventeen. And then of course as soon as you turn seventeen you’re handed a driver’s license with no other qualifications.
This, too, will be corrected in future days, but elephant/rhinoceros hybrid if I know how long it will take.