Hot take: 26 year olds should not fuck 19 year olds.
It's not illegal, but it's still weird, creepy and potentially harmful and no amount of lambasting about "the problematic age gap discourse" will make it not true.
Kim is wrong about this on art. Art for its own sake is important and is one of the reasons for the revolution, to free art from the constrains of capitalism and needing to make money.
I mean, power dynamics are something that needs to be considered to make a healthy relationship, but all relationships have power dynamics. I mean, the power dynamics between men and women in general is likely more intense than the specific gap that of a 26 year old and a 19 year old.
the Volcel Vanguard has found you guilty of "making whoopie" with an individual 6 months your junior. Please report to the nearest :gulag: for immediate summary execution. Thank you! :volcel-judge:
someday we will study what drives people to constantly start conversations with random strangers about who should and should not be having sex, imagining all the details that make them angry and constantly proposing new rules about it
There isn't a defined line for when an age gap is bad because it's only one factor and while there is obviously a power dynamic between differently aged people that doesn't necessarily make the relationship harmful. As others have pointed out, there are power dynamics in every relationship. What's important is whether it's being utilized or not.
I think it's ultimately problem of alienation under capitalism. Ideally, under communism, you could rely more on the community to prevent predatory or abusive relationships without having super strict rules. I think 19-26 is in a grey area, it could easily be predatory but it's possible for it not to be. I'd rather err on the side of bodily autonomy.
while there is obviously a power dynamic between differently aged people
IDK, I feel like that's an incomplete proposition, to some extent at least.
The things that typically make for an "power-dynamic" in a relationship, like accumulated personal wealth, social experience, social networks & ones overall position in society are all to some extent or another correlated with age to some extent. But y'know, none of those are necessarily guarantees; at least not within the specific age-range specified in the post at any rate.
OP, what's it like being clinically allergic to context? Every other question you pose basically boils down to historically particular context, this one especially.
Whenever anybody says it's not 'weird, creepy, and potentially harmful' you say 'power dynamics' but power dynamics are about the context of the relationship when straight up legality is not involved.
I find it preposterous that you're talking about "power dynamics" when the 25 year old in this situation, at the time, was a poor intern at The Young Turks (making $25,000 / year in Los Angeles) who has lifelong body dysmorphia from being overweight as a teenager. While on the other hand, the 19 year old in this situation was literally
spoiler
Michael Jackson's daughter.
I mean, if anything, the 19 year old had more power in that relationship. She literally had 1,000,000 x more money than he did, at the time. He was literally a broke-ass boy toy to her. Do you not get that? Does six years of age make up for millions of dollars? And a nineteen year old who grew up in that environment is going to be very, very mature for their age.
tl;dr: LET STRAIGHT WOMEN HAVE BOY TOYS.
She consents. He consents. They were both adults. They were both mature. They are literally still friends with each other, on good terms. Please don't fall into the negative side of being parasocial. This is not even something worth talking about.
This post was inspired by Hasan but is not about him, nor his specific situation. I'm not going to address your other points because they're irrelevant to this discussion which is about a topic much broader than that.
It’s not illegal, but it’s still weird, creepy and potentially harmful and no amount of lambasting about “it being enough internet for today” will make it not true.
I agree with your premise and wouldn't personally do it. However, I don't think these situations are quite as taboo or quasi-pedophlic as you categorize them to be. It is acceptable depending on the context of that relationship, or as you place it: power dynamics.
Power dynamics is dependent on: If they are both two consenting adults who are financially and emotionally independent & stable of each other. If those conditions check out, then there really isn't much of a problem, and it doesn't qualify as quasi-pedophlic sexual predatory as you seem to be painting these relationships or sexual encounters to be.
I mean, I've met couples - with children - who are 19/28 & 23/31 and started out which way. These relationships do happen.
I concede it is weird, at first glance, or when it's like a 30+ year old who exclusively dates teenagers/undergraduates. Yet people involved in those age ranges are still adults with their full agency behind their actions when they consent to sexual intercourse or romantic engagements; if both partners are financially, socially, and emotionally stable and independent of one another, then categorizing this as creepy, weird, or quasi-pedophilic , feels dehumanizing and infantilizing to reduce teenaged adults into helpless victims of those elder partners.
26 and 19 seems fine, once you become an adult it's more about being in the same phase of life. 30+ year olds dating legal age teenagers is where it starts to get creepy though.
But it's close enough that it can work, for the most part. Some people are late bloomers and all that. It's not the same as a 50+ year old grandpa picking up women that age.
Older people that date 18 year old highschoolers are really creepy though.
I could believe a lot of such relationships aren't for the best, but I was dating 17 years my senior @ 18 and 31 years my senior @ 28. With that background, I'm fine with it personally.
When I was 18 and in college I dated a 33 year old. I was fully aware of what I was doing and of the age gap. Don’t really see what’s so problematic about it
Half your age plus seven, a nineteen year old is an adult and they can make their own decisions. As long as the 26 year old isn't their boss or some other category with power over the 19 year old it's fine.
I am 23. Whenever I accidentally come across nude pictures of an 18 year old (sometimes unavoidable on the internet, even when not searching for it) my immediate reaction is "ew, that is a child, I don't want to see that"
I cannot imagine what kind of disgusting freak you have to be to pursue these children into your 30s and 40s. :gulag:
Eh, I've been in a relationship with a wide age gap. The older person was a lot older, the younger person had more relationship/sexual experience, earned more money at a more stable job, had their own place, was in several other fairly stable intimate relationships, had a car etc. and in cases like that I don't see any harm being done because of age difference. Age is just an indicator of independence and social power, but it's pretty bad one.
My roommates met at around those ages (apparently they met in college and didn't realize the age gap until it was too late) and honestly I thought it was messed up for awhile but now they're 23 and 30, making a life for themselves, supporting the other at their lowest and loving each other
I'd still agree with you generally, I have no plans to recreate their relationship, but it is possible for it to work out
I've seen similar situations as well. Context is always important, so weird absolutist takes like OP's miss that completely. Some situations would be fine, some would be inappropriate, but it's not all or nothing.
As a former 19 y/o who was having sex with people that age and older- it entirely depends, but if you've done kink and consent education you probably have better boundary skills than most adult USians, and more experienced people showing you the ropes is nice.
But this is coming from a lesbian perspective and 19 y/o shouldn't be dating 26 y/o.
There are definitely 19 year olds that can date older.
The problem is that there are also definitely 19 year olds that can't and it fucks them up when they're manipulated. The reason this is a baity question is because it resides right at the edge of it all becoming ok.
yeah i completely agree with this actually. at 26 your brain is done growing. at 19 you are still (developmentally speaking) dumb as fuck.
i think the real issue is when you start to tack on a few more years to the older partner but i do still think it's hella gross and weird to perv on people significantly younger than you are :shrug-outta-hecks:
it doesn't help that (at least in my experience) the older partner usually makes a habit of dating young, dicaprio-style
While I agree that a 26 year old dating a 19 year old seems pretty gross, "brain development" talk is very very off-putting to me because its being used to try and deny trans people health care even after legal adulthood. I don't know what point I'm trying to make here, just feels iffy.
Says who? My understanding is that in a large population, certain specific structures in the brain were observed to slow their rate of change around the age of 25. Other parts of the brain continued to change forever. Certain people may experience the changes earlier or later. If you really believe that the problem with an age gap relationship is physical differences between the brains of the partners, do you also think that neurodiverse people shouldn't be able to consent at all?
Uhh in your title you’re talking about fucking but in the comments everyone is talking about dating.
There are issues with age gaps in dating/long term relationships. But if it’s just sex then it’s just sex. A 19 year old can consent to sex, and it doesn’t really matter if your partner is older because you’re not gonna have a long term relationship with them and you’re only gonna interact with them for one day.