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Originally Posted by blankall
Do 12 year olds habitually live on their own without a guardian? No.
As for your argument about society, that's garbage too. Historically, women were married at age 12-13, and began sexual encounters at that point. Juliet was a 13 year old, and up until very recently, it was the norm for girls that age to get married and start producing their own children. Often these girls were marreid to established men, IE much older. Our society and its morals have changed things so that girls aged 12-16 are less sexualized and now considered legally and morally "off limits".
Despite the alarmist attitudes surrounding teenagers and sex, teenagers are getting pregnant at far lower rates and having sex far later than they have at any point in history. Obviously, part of this has to do with greater access to birth control pills and prophelactics, but those things have been widely available since the 1990s. Pregnancy and abortion rates have fallen dramatically since then. Which indicates that teenagers are having less sex or having it in a more responsible and mature way.
http://micpohling.wordpress.com/2008...ate-1972-2005/
Society has to draw the line somewhere and 16 is a good place. I agree with you that, in general, 15 is too young, which is why this guy is now a registered sex offender and has to serve a jail sentence. |
Yes, historically, women were sold off into marriage and given no sexual autonomy. What's your point?
Your point about marriage age is wrong anyway. Yes women were sold off into marriage that young, but by the 1600s the large majority of brides were 19 or older in Northwestern Europe. 22 was the average age of a bride during this time.
From marriageable age wiki:
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Still, in most of Northwestern Europe, marriage at very early ages was rare; one thousand marriage certificates from 1619 to 1660 in the Archdiocese of Canterbury show that only one bride was 13 years of age, four were 15, twelve were 16, and seventeen were 17 years of age while the other 966 brides were at least 19 years of age at marriage. And the Church dictated that both the bride and groom must be at least 21 years of age to marry without the consent of their families; in the certificates, the most common age for the brides is 22 years and for the grooms 24 years is the most common age, with average ages of 24 years for the brides and 27.75 for the grooms [4]. While European noblewomen married early, they were a small minority[5] and the marriage certificates from Canterbury show that even among nobility it was very rare to marry women off at very early ages[6].
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriageable_age
Also, you seem to believe in the myth that teenage women are ready for pregnancy. That's not true at all. Teenage pregnancies are much more likely to have complications. The 20s are the best time for women to conceive. Which is probably why they didn't marry women off earlier, since they would have observed teen mothers dying more often.
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From a strictly biological perspective, the 20s is the best decade for conceiving and carrying a baby: Experts say the average woman's fertility peaks when she's 24.
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http://www.babycenter.com/0_age-and-...20s_1494692.bc
I don't really mind teenagers having sex, although we need to do a much better job with sex education and teaching the importance of autonomy. I mind the adults who have sex with them.