BonesOfTheMoonAll Republicans are groomers.
I guess one happy couple doesn’t mean other marriages would be happy.
She looks happy to you?
Now this guy could be the worst person on Earth, but we really don’t know that based on one photo from what is clearly a staged photoshoot (not even a candid shot).
I understand wanting to make a point, but this whole thread to be honest looks exactly to me like the flipside of people salivating against drag shows or stuff like that: hard stances based on no information. One picture and it’s already certain he is a groomer, she is not happy etc.? Yes, there is a big age difference, but this doesn’t mean anything per se.
I am honestly very surprised to see people acting with such confidence over something they objectively know so little about.
i’m not sure how much context I need to decide it is inappropriate for 42 year-old to hit on a high schooler whether she was 18 or not.
You can of course have your own morale, but there is nothing objective. I cannot personally relate to that either, but I also acknowledge that this is purely cultural and therefore relative and possibly temporary. I find the arguments that by definition label it as wrong or worse grooming to be moralistic and - to some extent - bigoted. Even if directed towards a person that probably is a bigot himself etc.
I’m assuming you mean morals.
That’s about as far as I’m willing to take this conversation. Claiming cultural relativism for a 42-year-old to date a highschooler and then calling me bigoted for not accepting it…I mean that has to be the bravest take I’ve seen in a LONG time.
By the way, I am an American and this guy lives in my society and culture. Please don’t be an intolerant bigot - apparently that falls under your definition, which is bizarre.
Yes, I mean morals.
I am not calling you bigoted, I am calling the arguments that on principle see a relationship between a 19-20 yo (the age where they realistically started dating) and a 43-45 yo as inherently predatory and wrong, bigoted.
It’s no different from many other moralistic arguments. In fact you fail to elaborate any reason why it’s objectively wrong/predatory for a 45 yo to be with a 20 yo, and are resorting in making thins creepy purely with the language (high-schooler).
Please don’t be an intolerant bigot - apparently that falls under your definition, which is bizarre.
It’s clear that your view is not so universal, even in your country, or such view would have been codified in law (as we have laws against pedophilia now, while in ancient Greece it was absolutely normal to have sex with kids, for example). So in which way I would be a bigot (I really don’t understand what I assume is a provocation).
I noticed mods removed this comment with the reason “defending predators”. The point of this whole discussion is that being older doesn’t make you a predator BY DEFAULT, in my opinion (and according to the law, otherwise it would be illegal). You can be a predator and exploit a 17 yo being 18, while a 18 and a 40 yo might have a healthy relationship.
Being a predator makes you a predator, not being older. Hence, I am not defending anybody, I am questioning the rushed and deterministic way in which the “predator” jusdgement is thrown based on nothing else than anagraphic age.
Think that you might be wrong.
What a useful point! Thanks for the comment
If the person you’re talking to says you’re defending pedophiles, and the mods remove your comment for defending pedophiles, then you stop for a second ask yourself, “Self, am I defending pedophiles?”
How about you screenshot this conversation and send it to five friends and ask their opinion? If I were a betting man I would say you had a flash of thought that said “this is a bad idea.“ You should explore that feeling.
Or conversely, send it to them and see what happens.
Would you consider a man in a park playing with little girls a predator? No you wouldn’t, because that can be both a predator and a sweet grampa (and many other things). A man having a relationship (you are saying hitting on, you don’t know) with a young girl is not necessarily a predator. Mind you, it can be! But the age alone doesn’t tell us that. It’s not nuance questioning, is accepting that human experience is different and people are different and yes, it’s possible that a very young person has a very good relationship with someone much older. If I saw two people in public, it’s not the first thing I would think, but that’s due to my prejudices.
Also I don’t care what two people say on a forum. The comment got 4 upvotes, so even the temperature check here shows me that it’s clear I am not defending predators (which I would find abhorrent). Nor you nor anybody else has elaborated on why a middle-aged person in a relationship with a 20yo is necessarily (emphasis on necessarily) a predator. So I take it for what it is: a cultural item which is based on mostly prejudices and traditions. Mind you, I have it as well. This whole disgust is the first thing that came to my mind too. I just realized that it’s based on nothing more than my gut feeling.