https://drewdevault.com/2023/11/25/2023 ... n-sex.html
The article looks very professionally and reasonably written - from the point of view of an average reader not knowing much about the topic. I want to emphasize a point the author is making throughout the whole text which is the differentiation between children and teenagers.
The author writes:
The author makes it sound as if Stallman was crazy to draw that line between children and teenagers. Another example:Stallman cares deeply about language and its usage. His strange and deliberate usage of the word “children” is also found many times throughout his political notes over the years. For example:
Here Stallman again explicitly distinguishes “teenagers” from children, drawing this distinction especially in the context of sexual relationships between adults and minors.It sounds horrible: “UN peacekeepers accused of child rape in South Sudan.” But the article makes it pretty clear that the “children” involved were not children. They were teenagers.
— stallman.org, 30 April 2018 “UN peacekeepers in South Sudan”
The author covers some more issues he has with Stallman which I don't want to discuss but I want to emphasize the point that the author does not seem to accept that a 14 years old person is most often de facto not a biological child anymore. This is what Stallman tries to emphasize. The author on the other hand seems to use the equation minor = child, the de jure definition of the U.N. or the U.S. immigration law which calls a person under an age of 18 or even 21 a child.And once more when defending Roy Moore:
Ms. Corfman was 14 at the time Roy Moore is accused of initiating sexual contact with her; Moore was 32 at the time. Here we see an example of him re-iterating his definition of “children”, a distinction he draws especially to suggest that an adult having sex with a minor is socially acceptable.Senate candidate Roy Moore tried to start dating/sexual relationships with teenagers some decades ago.
He tried to lead Ms Corfman step by step into sex, but he always respected “no” from her and his other dates. Thus, Moore does not deserve the exaggerated condemnation that he is receiving for this. As an example of exaggeration: one mailing referred to these teenagers as “children”, even the one that was 18 years old. Many teenagers are minors, but none of them are children.
The condemnation is surely sparked by the political motive of wanting to defeat Moore in the coming election, but it draws fuel from ageism and the fashion for overprotectiveness of “children”.
— stallman.org, 27 November 2017 “Roy Moore’s relationships”
The different usage of the word "child" complicates discussions about AMSC as there is much more common ground in saying that a 7 or 10 years old child will probably not fully comprehend the idea of a sexual contact with an older person whereas a 16 year old "child" will most likely very well understand sex and how it works and be able to decide which partner they want to have. As always, there are exceptions in all directions but in general this will apply.
The author makes his point - without even mentioning it directly - by relying solely on the legal definition of a child. He can trust that his readers will follow him in that. And this makes it easy for him to say that children can't consent because de facto most people think of prepubescent or barely pubescent persons when reading the word "child". As long as individuals from birth to the age of majority are put under that same umbrella term in a scientific or societal discussion, we will have problems getting the message through that some of these "children" might very well able to consent and know what they want. And that's because they are not biological children anymore but teenagers - in physical and mental development much closer to adulthood than to infants.
It's one small aspect of the whole broad area we're covering here. Clarifying and pushing that distinction won't help pedophiles who dream of being intimate with a 10 years old. But someone being attracted to 14 or 16 years old might benefit in the long run.
