Age of consent: Is it different for men and women?

Question

I don't mean legally but I think it should be. If a 16 year old girl is with a 16 year old guy is anyone harmed? If a 28 year old teacher has relations with a student is that always wrong? If it were a Male teacher I think prison but if it were a female teacher I am not even sure she should loose her job. Do you think the guy is harmed? Heck no, he's a rock star. What if two people were 19 and 15 is it the same if it is the male who is 15?

Answer 1

ANY teacher, male or female, that has s*x with a student, ANY student, even if that student is 18, should lose their job, at the very least, and not be able to teach again, EVER. Period. We CANNOT have our teachers having s*x with the students, even if those students are "of age."

And if a man should go to prison, so should a woman. There should be NO double standard here. Our legal system needs to send a very clear message that this is not acceptable, no matter WHO you are, or how "hot" you are.

Answer 2

I disagree that it should be.  Where I live, your example of two 16 year olds would not break any law and I agree that it shouldn't.

As for the teacher and student or 19-year-old and 15-year-old, the problems are similar.  I have been a teen, I'm raising teens, and I know how they think.  The guy may think he's a rockstar, as you say - but the girls feel like rockstars when they have the interest of that oh-so-cool older boy.  They're both being used and just don't realize they're not rockstars until they're older.

Answer 3

Don't confuse issues here...with the teacher pupil scenario remove all references to age as it is a professional boundaries issue, and wrong! As a teacher you are acting in loco parentis and to exploit that young person is a breach of professionalism and should be treated seriously, regardless of the gender of the teacher.

As for the matter of underage s*x, and if society judges older women and boys more leniently...

We either must take a moral stand against those who have s*x with children or don't.All sane people say it is morally reprehensible to have s*x with a child, but we all go a little fuzzy when its just underage, she is 15 and he is 25, and boys mature differently! We jsut can't afford to shilly shally like that, either underage means underage or it does not!

I also think older women who have s*x with underage boys are morally reprehensible, but you hit the nail on the head...the boy gets to s***w the teacher, the foolish, deluded woman thinks she has been romantically linked with cupid, when really she has become a paedophile!

And there may be examples of relationships that have lasted, but the way they started is deeply disturbing.

Answer 4

feminists & their brothers & sisters on the political far right always push laws making  s*x as illegal as possible.

The far right believes you should only have s*x if you are trying to have a baby.

feminists believe all s*x is rape (don't believe me?? go read some of the collected 'writings' of Catherine McKinnon & Andrea Dworkin) My guess is the hard-core feminazis are lesbians who get pissed off that hot-looking guys get all the hot-looking women, & the feminazis are stuck with women who look like Roseanne Barr.

Answer 5

Depends on the people involved.

I'm sure this is going to get me tons of thumbs-down, but I'm against an age of consent. Maybe some people are ready when they're 15, and really are in love with a 20-year old. If the 15-year old consents to it, it's not rape.

Why is there an age of consent? Who's telling us what we can and can't do with our bodies? If we're talking about 4-year olds, it's psychological manipulation and therefore rape. If we're talking about a 16-year old who says no, it's rape. If two people consent -without coercion; coercion negates consent- then it's all fine.

I'm against teachers and students doing it though...it would s***w the rest of the class, and not in the fun way. Teacher's doing a student. Teacher inflates student's grades. Teacher and student have a falling out. Teacher is really bitchy and weird to the rest of the class. The whole class gets screwed over. Not fun. Also, then you open the door to a lot of, "Have s*x with me or you'll get an F," or, "We broke up so I failed you," or, "You suck at history but since you're good in the sack, you get an A," kind of deals. However, that's a matter of school policy, not law.

Maybe this is a really girl-type thing to say, but I don't think we should automatically assume that every guy is really ready for a sexual relationship just because he's horny. There are long-term emotional effects, and guys have emotions too.

But, to quote Lysander Spooner, to have a right to do a thing is not the same as to be right in doing it.

Answer 6

A 17 year old black male was put in prison for TEN YEARS for 'statutory rape' because his 15/16 year old date gave him oral s*x.

Somwhere down south.

The USA is the weirdest country on the planet. There are lawmakers that are actually standing up and defending the decision to put a 17 year old guy in jail for TEN years for getting a BJ.

If these rules were applied to my very expensive, strict and religious irish boarding school I think about thirty of us (male and female) would still be in jail.

Answer 7

An authority figure taking advantage of their student's innocence and immaturity, will definitely harm the student later in life. The fact that you think that sleeping with a teacher will make you a rock star just goes on to show how immature you are. Gender SHOULDN'T matter. Age of consent should be the same for boys and girls and punishment should be the same for male and female rapists.  

Answer 8

The age of consent is the same in my state.  Some states make allowances for a two. four year difference in ages.

I think that the exceptions for a two year age difference are good.  However, I don't think people under 18 should have s*x at all.  They are too young to deal with the consequences - pregnancy.

Answer 9

I think the problem with your male and female student-teacher comparison is really that you think the young male student would be treated like a rockstar. If stereotype persists, he would be, but stereotypes aren't always true. The real center of the problem is that society would reward a young male for hooking up with an older female, and it reinforces the stereotype that no matter what the situation, it is always the male who induces the sexual act. This is not true. In my experience, the female s*x weirdos actually use this stereotype to get what they want, mainly s*x with someone who is younger.

A 20-something male teacher who sleeps with a teenage female student is treated like he is a rapist and a manipulator or young minds. A 15 year old boy who sleep with a 20-something female teacher is treated like he is a mastermind. In both cases, however, it is the elder who has the most authority and the most control... so the 15 year old boy is really the victim... and so is society.

Answer 10

its 16 for everyone in England.

My friend had a guy in her year at school and when they were in year 9 (aged 13 - 14) he shagged the teacher. She got fired but now they are married and have a kid and live in her town. He is now 24 and she is early 30s. She lost her career over it but it has been ten years since now so it must have been the right decision.

Answer 11

Every state is different.  Some states have a law that the parties must have a 3 or 4 year age difference so that way a 16 year old having s*x with a 14 year old couldn't be thrown in jail.  Many states have a strict standard so technically a 16 year old could be charged with statutory rape for a 14 year old even though they go to high school together.  The statute is the same for boys and girls in all states.