Catch-all ages
Submitted by Heather on April 15 1999 at 16:54:14
In reply to Re: A Question, please Submitted by Ben on April 15 1999 at 07:31:49
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"So, it stood to reason that, as soon as they were ready to bear children (or to tie themselves to a man for whom later they would bear children) that they should be able to marry. Although plenty of 13 year old boys are physically capable of being fathers, clearly their roles are more complicated and have a better chance of being successful if they wait a few more years." Excuse me if I giggle for a few years. You think bearing and nursing children is easier than taking care of them as a father? Would you care to trade places? "However, they ignore the fact that different individuals mature at different rates." You know, I'd like to tackle this one further, because I've heard it so many times. Could it be possible that the people who passed the AOC laws weren't ignoring this fact, but simply couldn't come up with a better solution? Mind you, I think the general public ignores this fact a lot, but I have a lot of sympathy for those hardworking legislators trying to find a way to prevent child sexual abuse (which is why such laws were originally passed, back in Roman times). I've heard a lot of alternatives bandied about on the boylove boards - some of them quite interesting - but the net result of all of them would be to increase court work tremendously. At least the AOC laws, whatever their defects (and they have a lot of defects), are straightforward in the same way that driving permit laws and drinking laws and other age-related laws are. There certainly isn't any single age at which children are ready to drive or ready to drink. Heather |