Why does the age of consent vary so much?

[Hardheaded1]

Reproduction and instinct are complicated animal behaviors, period. They vary from species to species, and humans have the added complication of culture and intelligence, making the study even more clouded.

But, I'll throw my lot in with one of the most respected animal behaviorists on the planet, Sir David Attenborough. From his 1990 publication The Trials of Life:

If you watch animals objectively for any length of time, you're driven to the conclusion that their main aim in life is to pass on their genes to the next generation. Most do so directly, by breeding. In the few examples that don't do so by design, they do it indirectly, by helping a relative with whom they share a great number of their genes. And in as much as the legacy that human beings pass on to the next generation is not only genetic but to a unique degree cultural, we do the same. So animals and ourselves, to continue the line, will endure all kinds of hardship, overcome all kinds of difficulties, and eventually the next generation appears.

With our big brains and endless ability to analyze and parse, we too easily obfuscate the obvious. Somewhere among all the talk of bondage and glamour and strip shows, we intellectualize and personalize sex until we deny what is blatantly obvious about the basic nature of nature.

The same could be said for rarefied foods and the evolution of Subaru-driving humans who only buy a half dozen eggs and a paltry bowl of hummus at Whole Foods. Their behaviors don't really reveal anything at all about genetics or biology, but of behavioral norms based in culture. Strip away culture, and the genetics are inescapable, regardless of the individualistic anomalies or seeming contradictions.

[ShiftyNJ]

What's your point? :confused:

That it's an artificial construct based on some kind of average, when people clearly decide they're "ready" for these things at all different ages, for good or for ill.

[ShiftyNJ]

i think there is a big difference between what one wants, and what one feels compelled to do.

sure, men love sex and want to have it. but we also feel compelled to fuck outside those conscious wishes.

men can want to have kids. but i have yet to see anybody walking around feeling compelled to produce a baby so much. i haven't seen a single person like that.


it's not meeting another person and feeling, 'damn, i want a baby right now. gotta have that thing'. but it is meeting another person and feeling, 'i wanna fuck right now'. that's where the difference is. sex is the instinct. reproduction is just the consequence.

I hear ya, but you're not female. Women are motivated by different things, which explains why they will go through extraordinary lengths, and sometimes even take great risks, to have a kid.

[Pix]

That it's an artificial construct based on some kind of average, when people clearly decide they're "ready" for these things at all different ages, for good or for ill.

I can agree with you about it being a perceived "average" as a rule of thumb (but just because they do these things doesn't necessarily mean they're ready), heck, I think many people would mature faster if society let them rather than structuring their lives so much and/or keeping them in a bubble, but are you saying there shouldn't be laws regarding these things? Anyone of any age could buy cigarettes and alcohol? (Btw, in some countries they can though other things such as violent video games might be denied them, and in that case it doesn't seem so bad since for rebellion there's no coolness factor.) That military recruiters be able to get some 13-year-old to sign on the dotted line to join (either then or later)? Take up factory work at 10? That some 30-year-old be able to cajole a kid into sex with him? Because while I know there are plenty of kids who an unusual amount of maturity and sense (some more than the average adult around them) that strikes me as a recipe for hurting a lot of kids who aren't as sensible as they become targets to manipulative people (and even parents) who don't have their best interest at heart.

Is there a test you can think of that would reasonably show when an individual is ready to assume the full rights and responsibilities of adulthood regardless of their age? (Frankly I'd love it if that were the case, even if it meant there were 10-year-old adults and senior citizens who never reached the age of majority.) Or have some other idea regarding regulation as opposed to arbitrary restrictions based on an average?

Btw, long experience inspires me to add a caveat: this post isn't meant to be an interrogation, I'm simply curious what you think.

[ShiftyNJ]

I can agree with you about it being a perceived "average" as a rule of thumb (but just because they do these things doesn't necessarily mean they're ready), heck, I think many people would mature faster if society let them rather than structuring their lives so much and/or keeping them in a bubble, but are you saying there shouldn't be laws regarding these things? Anyone of any age could buy cigarettes and alcohol? (Btw, in some countries they can though other things such as violent video games might be denied them, and in that case it doesn't seem so bad since for rebellion there's no coolness factor.) That military recruiters be able to get some 13-year-old to sign on the dotted line to join (either then or later)? Take up factory work at 10? That some 30-year-old be able to cajole a kid into sex with him? Because while I know there are plenty of kids who an unusual amount of maturity and sense (some more than the average adult around them) that strikes me as a recipe for hurting a lot of kids who aren't as sensible as they become targets to manipulative people (and even parents) who don't have their best interest at heart.

Is there a test you can think of that would reasonably show when an individual is ready to assume the full rights and responsibilities of adulthood regardless of their age? (Frankly I'd love it if that were the case, even if it meant there were 10-year-old adults and senior citizens who never reached the age of majority.) Or have some other idea regarding regulation as opposed to arbitrary restrictions based on an average?

Btw, long experience inspires me to add a caveat: this post isn't meant to be an interrogation, I'm simply curious what you think.

No, I understand why the laws are there, because we have people in our society who would exploit and manipulate the kid into thinking it was what (s)he wanted. My point was just that trying to pin maturity to an arbitrary age is inherently flawed because people mature at different speeds and there will always be some who will buck the law and do what they want.

And I agree that it would be cool if maturity was quantifiable. A woman's body won't conceive a baby if her body fat is below a certain level (I think 4%); it would be cool if that was true about the collective IQ of the parents as well.