I disagree that legal minors “cannot” consent to sex. Our society doesn’t allow them to consent due to the possible consequences. It does, however, allow them to consent to some other things due to the potential consequences being (correctly or incorrectly) perceived as acceptable. When we pretend that legal minors are incapable of consent, we infantilize them and open the door to bad-faith arguments like this one. There is no magical moment of “Shazam!” at which teens are mystically imbued with the ability to consent, but there are various arbitrary legal lines at which society recognizes their consent to various things as valid. Some may have been making valid choices for YEARS by the time the State recognizes those choices as valid; some may not ever be capable of making valid choices, even though legally allowed. That is, unfortunately, the only way large societies have yet figured out to recognize rights without somehow testing ever single person for decision-making ability every year from 13 to 30 (a process which would itself be ripe for abuse and political manipulation). The only real solution to all the conflicting ages of responsibility is to stop letting the State micromanage so many different areas of our lives, and to stop letting it criminalize so very many decisions people of any age make over their own lives and bodies.
Legal Fiction
June 10, 2021 by Maggie McNeill
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I think they should have said do not and shouldn’t. Then again, those people aren’t very bright. By the way, would you consider a theoretical story with two characters who aren’t of consensual age who engage in intercourse acceptable or not? (Said story also delves into the consequences of such actions.)
By “story”, do you mean fiction? Fictional characters aren’t real; people are perfectly sanguine about letting them be murdered, even tortured, but as soon as they have sex some booga-booga magic occurs that somehow mystically harms some real person? That is the belief-system of a primitive with the mind of a child.
Yes, it is a work of fiction, and your response is exactly what I thought.
What bugs me about this is that they are so inconsistent. Someone is “too young to have sex” at sixteen, but is old enough to drive a car even on busy highways? Or the second a young person is accused of a serious crime, they’re taken out of the juvenile-justice system that was set up specifically for such cases, and remanded to adult court to face adult-level punishments.
Where I grew up in the rural south in the early 1950s, 12 year olds routinely operated tractors and other heavy farm equipment. 14 year olds could get a driver license for state highways.
Even today, after the FAA has increased its age requirements for pilots, the age requirements are:
Student Pilot License 16 years (or 14 for gliders and balloons).
A 14 year old can pilot a balloon or a glider by themself (no passengers) with a student license if the flight instructor signs papers saying that they are capable. A 16 year old can fly a powered aircraft by themself (no passengers) if a flight instructor signs that they are capable.
Private Pilot License 17 years (or 16 for gliders and balloons).
A 16 year old can pass training and tests and get a private pilot license for gliders and balloons. Then they can carry passengers. But not for hire. A 17 year old can pass training and tests, and pilot a powered aircraft with passengers, but not for hire.
Commercial Pilot License 18 years. An 18 year old can pass training and tests, and fly powered aircraft for commercial purposes, but not with passengers or cargo for hire. They can fly crop dusters (very dangerous) and do aerial photography for hire.
Flight Instructor Certificate 18 years. An 18 year old can pass training and tests, and then get paid to teach other people to fly, even older people. A flight student is not a passenger. So a flight instructor is not flying passengers for hire.
Airline Transport Pilot License 23 years (or 21 for a restricted ATPL). A 23 year old can pass training and tests for an unrestricted ATPL. That means they can fly as pilot in command on commercial flights. A 21 year old can pass training (fewer flight hours than for unrestricted ATPL) and tests for a restricted ATPL. That means they can fly only as copilot or first officer on commercial flights.
So a 16 year old or a 17 year old can carry passengers in an aircraft. If they make a wrong decision, they can crash and kill others as well as themselves. But they are too young to be trusted with deciding to engage in consensual sex.
A 14 year old can fly gliders and balloons by themselves. Gliders and balloons can be very dangerous; if the pilot makes a wrong decision the result can be fatal. But they are too young to be trusted with deciding to engage in consensual sex.
If you think the legal age limitations for consensual sex are irrational and completely inconsistent with the legal age limitations for the actually dangerous activity of flying aircraft, you are right.