This post is probably going to piss some people off, so if you’re the “gets pissed off easily” type, you might want to skip this one. If you want to contribute constructively to the discussion feel free to do so in the comments.
Last night I was watching To Catch a Predator because I had heard so much about it and wanted to see it for myself. Essentially, MSNBC works with a group called Perverted Justice to capture potential sex predators. Perverted Justice (PJ) volunteers/employees pose as 13-year-old girls and chat with men online who are looking for sex, invites the men to a house, and at the house they meet with Chris Hansen from MSNBC as opposed to doing whatever it is they might have done with someone they thought was a 13-year-old girl.
During and after the show, I was becoming a bit aggravated.
First of all, the whole thing makes me think of what creates an online persona. The men who showed up to the house were charged with soliciting sex from someone below the age of consent. But none of the PJ people were below the age of consent. They were just pretending to be below the age of consent. Even the actor they hired to play the 13 year old at the house was 18. So no one in the entire process was underage. I realize this is a weak argument. I’m playing Devil’s Advocate.
Second of all, viewers were shown the interviews between police and the men. Every time a suspect was questioned I kept thinking, “Shut the fuck up, and ask for a lawyer.” All the cops were playing the buddy role with the guys who got caught, and in one case the cop kept asking questions even after one of the guys asked for a lawyer. But the guy was an idiot, so he kept talking to the cops. This is more a frustration I have with people in general than I have with this show. Don’t talk to the fucking cops. They are not your friends. They do not want to help you. They do not want to make a deal. They do not want to make it easy for you. They want to make it easy for themselves. Tell them you want a lawyer and keep your fucking mouth closed.
Third and finally, and this is the trickiest point: I have a problem with age of consent. My biggest problem is that it’s not uniform across different states. Statutory rape in one state is a regular Saturday night in another state. Sex with 12 and 13 year olds is equated with sex with 16 and 17 year olds depending on the little squiggles on the maps that designate state lines. How can such a difference exist and law enforcement professionals still take themselves seriously? “Hey, we arrested you for this here, but if you were one state over it wouldn’t have been a problem.” What the fuck kind of logic is that?
And what exactly is behind all this age of consent bullshit anyway? If 16 is the age of consent, why not 15 and 1/2? Why not 15 and 1/4? If 14 is the age of consent, what the hell makes a girl on her 14th birthday so worldly that she wasn’t that way the day before? And what about female sex offenders? Just look at this Fark thread for proof that when boys are preyed upon the standard is, “Good on ya for gettin’ some, junior!” whereas if it were a man with a young woman, the man would probably be on the goddamned Dateline show. Somehow, apparently, a 16 year old boy can consent to sex with a 23 year old while a 16 year old girl cannot. Talk about a double fucking standard.
I guess my biggest issue is that the whole age of consent thing is determined by legislatures seemingly arbitrarily, and that what one legislature determines is illegal, another legislature gives the gold star of approval. I think it’s high time we were through with age restrictions on things like voting, drinking, driving, smoking, gambling, and sex, and instead set some other process in place to allow people to do what they want when they’re ready to do so. I know some of us were ready to vote or have sex when we were 15, and some of us won’t be ready to do either until we’re 30. What sense does it make to keep around these systems that don’t seem to work?
Disclaimer: I don’t want to have sex with 13 year olds. Hell, I don’t want to have sex with 21 year olds. I can’t even imagine having to listen to the dumbness coming out of the mouth of some 21 year old. I like having sex with my wife just dandy, thanks very much. I think that child molesters should receive NO LENIENCY with regard to sentencing, but I also want to make sure their civil liberties aren’t violated, because once you do that, it’s easier to take away the liberties of everyone. I also think that there is probably an age of consent line SOMEWHERE. Like, 8 seems way too young for sex, but if 8 is too young, is 9? Is 10? … is 16? And suddenly we’re back where we started.
What do you think?
