Re: 13 year old girl says 'I consented'
I think, this topic is extremely difficult to explore, and even more difficult to answer. The children in question may have said yes to sex, but the ability to consent is directly related to the ability to not consent, as pointed out to me by somebody I brought the subject up to. What makes this complicated, is the mental capabilities of a 13 year old, versus any other person of an older age. I'm not speaking of a 21 year old, but I'm speaking of a 14-15-16 yr old. Where it's still legal for the two in question to have sexual activities. I know, at 13 years old, I didn't feel that I had a firm grasp on the concept of consent to anything, and I never felt like I had the power to say no to anything, not even to somebody just a year older then me.
Direct quote from a website I'll link to at the bottom:
"The first failure was a point of "How do I know whether I want to say 'yes' or 'no'?" The lack of clearly articulate consent or nonconsent was in significant part because I had no idea how to construct the concept."
My personal belief is that at the age of 13 (Also clearly expressed in the quote), is that those of such a young age have no idea how to construct the concept of consent, and understand they have the capability to say No. That they understand they do not have to obey anybody older then them.
Clearly, there are exceptions, but currently? I do not believe the majority of teens have that understanding.
Link, as promised: http://lettersfromgehenna.blogspot.c...g-consent.html
----Edit-----
For some reason, the quote is blue on the skin I'm using. If you cannot read it, maybe try another skin? I couldn't read it, but it is a direct quote from the link.
I think, this topic is extremely difficult to explore, and even more difficult to answer. The children in question may have said yes to sex, but the ability to consent is directly related to the ability to not consent, as pointed out to me by somebody I brought the subject up to. What makes this complicated, is the mental capabilities of a 13 year old, versus any other person of an older age. I'm not speaking of a 21 year old, but I'm speaking of a 14-15-16 yr old. Where it's still legal for the two in question to have sexual activities. I know, at 13 years old, I didn't feel that I had a firm grasp on the concept of consent to anything, and I never felt like I had the power to say no to anything, not even to somebody just a year older then me.
Direct quote from a website I'll link to at the bottom:
"The first failure was a point of "How do I know whether I want to say 'yes' or 'no'?" The lack of clearly articulate consent or nonconsent was in significant part because I had no idea how to construct the concept."
My personal belief is that at the age of 13 (Also clearly expressed in the quote), is that those of such a young age have no idea how to construct the concept of consent, and understand they have the capability to say No. That they understand they do not have to obey anybody older then them.
Clearly, there are exceptions, but currently? I do not believe the majority of teens have that understanding.
Link, as promised: http://lettersfromgehenna.blogspot.c...g-consent.html
----Edit-----
For some reason, the quote is blue on the skin I'm using. If you cannot read it, maybe try another skin? I couldn't read it, but it is a direct quote from the link.
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