Two battles that support each other.

[NeverLoseKibou]

It seems to me there are two distinct battles, unrelated but as a coincidence they converge on helping our situation.

The first battle is ageism.
I've observed that adults in a relationship with a large age gap are often viewed and talked about in a similar way to pedophiles.
A 25 year old woman with a 50 year old male partner.
A 19 year old woman with a 40 year old male partner.

I know someone who at 17 was dating a man in his late 40s. They went on to marry a few years later but the problems they faced because of that age gap were not nice. Her parents hated him, accused him of being a sex predator and pervert. They pretty much disowned her for a while pushing her to stop seeing him. When they married, her family had to climb down a bit. But the language from them and others was very much that he was a sex pradator or a pedophile. I've read in forums posts where people have been really nasty about others in similar situations, it could just be a 20 year old with a 35 year old partner, the age doesn't have to massive. You know even a 20 year old with a 30 year old partner will set tongues wagging.

Ageism in relationships is a problem. It is nobodies business, but people talk about it how people used to talk about mixed raced relationships. If a white woman had a black partner she would be disowned by her family, that will still be the case in some places but in most it would be accepted. People have come to realise that it's nobodies business really. I think there's an important battle for ageism in relationships as a real concern.

The second battle is youth rights.
Young people are disenfranchised with no votes or power over themselves or their world. A child's parents decide for them, are responsible for them, a child is powerless and vulnerable and as a result, often exploitable. A young person will inherit all the problems of their elders but they have no say in what problems are made. From climate change to AI policies to economics to wars. Closer to home, they go to the school they are sent to, to learn the teachings they are required to. Their bodies are not their own, whether it's medical treatmens or relationships. Medically there is some recognition of the problems with this with things like the Gillick competency test to allow a younger person to make medical decisions, but beyond that they have little voice or power.

Young people should be more engaged politically. Even if they don't have a full vote, they should have some form of assembly to debate and express themselves in a way that is heard and listened to.

They should be listened to about many things, from how they're feeling, to their fears, to what they want to inherit in the world, to relationships they want to be able to have, to how they are treated by adults and other children. Welfare isn't just telling kids what they can't have, it should be listening to what they should be entitled to have.

Youths that get more of a political stake, more of a voice ripples out over time, eventually to the subject of relationships and sexual rights.


Convergence
A world with real youth rights and ageism removed is a world where relationships between adults and children becomes far less controversial and more relatable. You could end up in a place where such relationships can flourish, without ever fighting head on for the rights of maps with children.

Thoughts?

[Learning to undeny]

Yes, I think these two are the most likely battles that will start changing things.

A youth movement would be ideal, but I'm not sure if we're close to the conditions for it. Perhaps, if the job market and education system change a lot after AI, that will affect the way the youth is treated. But it's hard to predict how.

Ageism is much broader and opposition to it is more mainstream. Age gaps are a relatively controversial aspect, but if age-gap relationships are attacked more harshly, there will be a reaction. And, unless we become a totally age-seggregated society, the result will be increased tolerance of age-gap relationships, including those that involve minors. So less moral panic, but adult-minor relationships will not be made legal from anti-ageism alone. Some separate push for youth autonomy is required for that, in my view.