Long post in response to Aerzia Saerules Arktuos
Let me start by stating that when it comes to laws, that laws aren't there to help and support 100% of humanity. This may seem odd, but that is because there are always exceptions and you can't define every exception in the law. For example - killing is bad. However, when a woman kills her husband, who has beaten her every day, in his sleep, she will appear before a judge...but also get a much more lenient sentence. Life isn't black and white, but the very nature of law is. It's just something we have to work with. So what law generally does is try to make rules that benefit most of the population while irking the least amount. I will get back to that specific point later.
on corpses: I don't disagree that the nature of a corpse is 'an item'. However, keep in mind that just like your dildo, a corpse has owners. That means that everyone can't just go around fucking any corpse. Now who owns them is a bit more difficult. In my personal view it goes a bit like this:
1: The corpse before dying - if they say 'this person can fuck me corpse after I die' it should be cleared. One might contest that they don't care after dying anyways, but just like any other property, their body is an item they leave after they die and subject to their will.
2: family. If the person made no statement about what should happen to the corpse, the family gets to decide - them them battle it out.
Of course this is no black and white, as the will of the dead person can also be overridden by family in other cases (like organ donation and wills can be contested).
Now on to my real soapbox: Kids.
Most people feel 'offended' by the very idea of an adult having sex with a (pre-puberty) child. I feel the same, but I do ask myself, why? Aerzia was right when she pointed out that while children might not have the knowledge to consent, adults often don't really have it either. Where is the line? So I want to elaborate on my knowledge to consent some more.
Children do not have the same knowledge of sex as most adults do. That comes for two reasons: State of mind and experience/knowledge.
State of mind: Young children are not occupied with sex and sexuality the same was as adults are. They are occupied with sexuality (though some adults are embarressed even by that idea). Young girls horse-ride on pillows and find it great fun, children play doctor with each other. When parents do their job properly, they explain how sex works and where kids come from at a young age. However, young children are not occupied with attraction and the thought of intercourse as adults do, even if they know the technical details. Yeah, even the tech details may seem just sort of odd to them, as in 'why would they even do that?'. That is because their brains are not wired for it yet. I guess the specific lust switch hasn't been flipped yet. Think of it - I have never heard of a 6 year proposing a sex act to an adult. They mostly don't go much further then curious exploration of 'how does it look like'.
So to summerize, they do not experience and think about sex the same way as we do.
Experience/knowledge: Sex is fun, but it does have hazerdous sides. It can easily lead to bad feelings part of those come from within and part of those come from inner reflections through the lens of society values (and those two are almost impossible to keep apart). Even many adults have problems navigating this field. How many women have ended up in bed with a guy they didn't really like because they didnt know how to say no? it works beter if a person is confident and secure, and has experiences enough of the world in general to know how people are like. As young people grow up they become better at articulating their own thoughts, feelings and desires. These are very important skills when entering relationships and having sex. It is important to be able to draw up borders and be able to say no.
Children of a young age often have to rely on their parents to tell how to behave, what their own rights are, and what the borders are in the world in general. As they grow older these concepts become more natural for them, and they are able to enforce these rules by themselves. They start to learn that not every adult is to be trusted, not just because they have been told so, but also because they have read about it, heard about it, and seen it happen.
Now, as law says 'don't touch kids under 16', the 16 is a number that has been drawn in the sand. The people who made the rules figured that people younger then that are likely not to have the state of mind, experience and knowledge for this.
Now of course, there are a plethora of examples of people under that age who clearly got enough of all three of those factors, and just as many examples of people above that age who lacked all of them. But you gotta draw a line somewhere. As 16 is the age where, in many societies, people already get several 'adult-rights' (like driving), this seems a good mark. They are ready to enter the adult world and interact with adults as other adults.
I'd also like to point out that I have heard quite some stories (a number of which first hand) of people who had sexual encounters with adults before they even hit puberty. None of them were positive, and several of these people had major problems in their later life as a result of that. It is a strong indication that disrupting the natural sexual development of a young child leads to bad results. To be clear - by disrupting I mean having sexual encounters with the young child, like sex or oral sex. many children feel uncomfortable with it, but don't have the knowledge and skilsl yet to articulate why it feels wrong, and don't have the skill to say no and enforce that.
And as so few good things seem to come from adults having sex with young children, the society will react with hostility to such things.
Let me start by stating that when it comes to laws, that laws aren't there to help and support 100% of humanity. This may seem odd, but that is because there are always exceptions and you can't define every exception in the law. For example - killing is bad. However, when a woman kills her husband, who has beaten her every day, in his sleep, she will appear before a judge...but also get a much more lenient sentence. Life isn't black and white, but the very nature of law is. It's just something we have to work with. So what law generally does is try to make rules that benefit most of the population while irking the least amount. I will get back to that specific point later.
on corpses: I don't disagree that the nature of a corpse is 'an item'. However, keep in mind that just like your dildo, a corpse has owners. That means that everyone can't just go around fucking any corpse. Now who owns them is a bit more difficult. In my personal view it goes a bit like this:
1: The corpse before dying - if they say 'this person can fuck me corpse after I die' it should be cleared. One might contest that they don't care after dying anyways, but just like any other property, their body is an item they leave after they die and subject to their will.
2: family. If the person made no statement about what should happen to the corpse, the family gets to decide - them them battle it out.
Of course this is no black and white, as the will of the dead person can also be overridden by family in other cases (like organ donation and wills can be contested).
Now on to my real soapbox: Kids.
Most people feel 'offended' by the very idea of an adult having sex with a (pre-puberty) child. I feel the same, but I do ask myself, why? Aerzia was right when she pointed out that while children might not have the knowledge to consent, adults often don't really have it either. Where is the line? So I want to elaborate on my knowledge to consent some more.
Children do not have the same knowledge of sex as most adults do. That comes for two reasons: State of mind and experience/knowledge.
State of mind: Young children are not occupied with sex and sexuality the same was as adults are. They are occupied with sexuality (though some adults are embarressed even by that idea). Young girls horse-ride on pillows and find it great fun, children play doctor with each other. When parents do their job properly, they explain how sex works and where kids come from at a young age. However, young children are not occupied with attraction and the thought of intercourse as adults do, even if they know the technical details. Yeah, even the tech details may seem just sort of odd to them, as in 'why would they even do that?'. That is because their brains are not wired for it yet. I guess the specific lust switch hasn't been flipped yet. Think of it - I have never heard of a 6 year proposing a sex act to an adult. They mostly don't go much further then curious exploration of 'how does it look like'.
So to summerize, they do not experience and think about sex the same way as we do.
Experience/knowledge: Sex is fun, but it does have hazerdous sides. It can easily lead to bad feelings part of those come from within and part of those come from inner reflections through the lens of society values (and those two are almost impossible to keep apart). Even many adults have problems navigating this field. How many women have ended up in bed with a guy they didn't really like because they didnt know how to say no? it works beter if a person is confident and secure, and has experiences enough of the world in general to know how people are like. As young people grow up they become better at articulating their own thoughts, feelings and desires. These are very important skills when entering relationships and having sex. It is important to be able to draw up borders and be able to say no.
Children of a young age often have to rely on their parents to tell how to behave, what their own rights are, and what the borders are in the world in general. As they grow older these concepts become more natural for them, and they are able to enforce these rules by themselves. They start to learn that not every adult is to be trusted, not just because they have been told so, but also because they have read about it, heard about it, and seen it happen.
Now, as law says 'don't touch kids under 16', the 16 is a number that has been drawn in the sand. The people who made the rules figured that people younger then that are likely not to have the state of mind, experience and knowledge for this.
Now of course, there are a plethora of examples of people under that age who clearly got enough of all three of those factors, and just as many examples of people above that age who lacked all of them. But you gotta draw a line somewhere. As 16 is the age where, in many societies, people already get several 'adult-rights' (like driving), this seems a good mark. They are ready to enter the adult world and interact with adults as other adults.
I'd also like to point out that I have heard quite some stories (a number of which first hand) of people who had sexual encounters with adults before they even hit puberty. None of them were positive, and several of these people had major problems in their later life as a result of that. It is a strong indication that disrupting the natural sexual development of a young child leads to bad results. To be clear - by disrupting I mean having sexual encounters with the young child, like sex or oral sex. many children feel uncomfortable with it, but don't have the knowledge and skilsl yet to articulate why it feels wrong, and don't have the skill to say no and enforce that.
And as so few good things seem to come from adults having sex with young children, the society will react with hostility to such things.
When I was a Christian, I was annoyed with dogmatic condescending Christians. Now that I'm an atheist, I'm annoyed with dogmatic condescending atheists. Just goes to prove that people are the same, regardless of what they do or don't believe.
