re: "but there should be at least some connections between people who engage in relationships"

You are free to have whatever kinds of relationships you want. Others are free to do the same. Who the f**k are you to tell others what kinds of relationships they should have? Mind your own f**king business.

re: "we have normalised hookup culture and sexualization"

This is absolute bulls**t. Young people are having less sex than at any time since the 1950s. Yapping nonsense about "hookup culture" is a stupid scare tactic. It has no basis in reality. All the data show that our society is more prudish, sex-phobic, and puritanical now than it's been for 4 generations.

"sexualization" is a fashionable buzz word these days, but anyone who takes some time to think it thru realizes that the whole thing is utter bulls**t. It makes no sense on any level. The word means 10 different things, but also means nothing. Read More »

I wrote a blog post

https://lemmy.cafe/post/10495094

Will we deal with these issues on a rational basis, or at the level of pure emotion?

You think two 14 year olds can consent to each other but not to people who are older, right?

How big an age gap negates consent?

What is the biological mechanism that creates this change?

Can you send me a link to the science that shows age-gaps erasing consent?

When sketchy scientists put together fishy but bombastic stuff peeps believe it,

but when serious scientists debunk the flimsy crap, everyone ignores them.

#HowToCreateIdioticMyths #BombastWins

The age of consent in Portugal is 14. They don't have any of the theoretical problems you say would happen if we let 17 year olds control their own bodies.

Portugal is not an exception. Plenty of countries respect teens' bodily autonomy. We need no hypotheticals. We have real world examples of low ages of consent working very well.

Bodies and brains never stop changing. The concept of "fully developed" is nonsense.

America to its teens: "You're a stupid child with a deficient brain. You need laws to protect you bc you're so dumb."

Europe to its teens: "You are now free to choose a partner, maybe even have sex with him or her if you want, because you're not a baby and we trust you."

#RespectYoungAdults

It seems to me that everybody wants to blame smart phones and TikTok so they won't have to examine how helicopter parenting destroyed the minds of the younger generations.

Bizarre Puritan ideology has broken the brains of otherwise normal podcasters.

_"Between 1979 and 1989 use of the word 'predator' goes up 900%"

Mass hysteria gripped the USA, and never let go.

https://buzzsprout.com/1112270/3884039-stranger-danger

If the victim of a statutory "rape" says that it wasn't rape, I believe the victim.

I believe victims when they say they are not victims.

It's evil to force them into victimhood they do not feel or think is real. It's just disgusting disrespect.

#RespectYoungAdults

Just like Crypto the entire "Anti Sex Trafficking" ecosystem is teeming with grifters, crooks, liars, and dirtbags.

It's because the entire thing is based on fear-mongering and hysteria. There's zero critical thinking happening there.

https://www.fox13now.com/news/crime/utah-based-non-profit-founder-pleads-no-contest-to-multiple-charges-including-fraud-unlawful-conduct

_

the term "groomer" is ridiculous fear-mongering bullshit, just like "predator"

it's totally detached from reality and serves only to gin up hysteria.

My vids are on Instagram too.

This one, for example:

Many people fundamentally misunderstand what age of consent laws do. Few take the time to learn how they work, or even what the law in their state is. They have naive notions that "Romeo & Juliet laws" mean only bad people get branded sex criminals.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CjYL7EqoCd-/

_

Peeps in the US whipped themselves into an hysterical frenzy over mythical sex predators raping their children and lurking around every corner ready to pounce on their next sweet innocent victim. Hansen and Walsh got rich as hell terrifying American parents. Our whole society is an emotional basket case ever since.

Honestly I don't think Cuties is about sexuality at all.

I think our sex-phobic culture has made us obsessed with sex, so we see it everywhere, and it dominates our view of everything, even when the real theme of the movie is right there shouting at us the whole time.

There are over 450 million EU citizens living in countries where the age of consent is 14, 15, or 16.

If there were any truth to the currently popular American hysteria about helpless teens getting abused by rampant predators, they'd have a huge problem.

but they don't.

Our society is celebrating very prudish Neo-Puritan sex-phobia

and doing it under the guise of railing against “sexualization”

Maturity depends a lot on how much you have learned, which depends on how much you have been challenged. Before the age of helicopter parents we learned faster and matured faster because we weren't locked up in an overprotective bubble.

Wild_Heather

Fighting Bigotry - Other sites I'm on: linksta.cc/@Heather_860

I wrote a blog post

Will we deal with these issues on a rational basis, or at the level of pure emotion?

Bodies and brains never stop changing. The concept of "fully developed" is nonsense.

Bizarre Puritan ideology has broken the brains of otherwise normal podcasters.