Who shalle celebrate with me....

[DarthRetard]

....Emma Watson becomes legal on Tax Day(today). What a bittersweet moment it shall be. However, it shall be a glorious day, filled with birds singing, and chocolate and gum drops falling from the sky. Israel and Palestine will create a competitive soccer league together, and Bin Laden will renounce his ways and join the Peace Corps. Oh shall it be a glorious day.

[Greenday]

WOOHOO!!!!! Now that's what I'm talking about!

[anriana]

What exactly are we supposed to be debating here? Whether or not we find this particular person attractive? The level of skeaziness in this post?

[Sylvia727]

How about a culture that sexualizes children and holds jailbait girls up as masturbatory fodder? Then wonders why pedophiliac attitudes are on the rise.

I could be wrong, but I had the impression that Emma Watson wasn't oversexed. I've only seen her in the HP movies, and Hermione definitely wasn't an underdressed bimbo.

[DesignFox]

I don't think it's innappropriate that Greenday and Darth would be celebrating...

If I'm not mistaken, they are both quite close to her in age.

[ArenaBoy]

Something tells me Darth was being silly.

On a serious note, she's cute and I'm 20 FFS so please don't jump on me.

[DarthRetard]

Yeah, I'm 19, soon to be 20, and as a fan of the movies and Emma Watson, I felt quite guilty thinking she was attractive and not of a legal age. It was really just a joke post. My apologies to all those offended.

As for skeaziness, I don't see what's so skeazy.

For debate purposes then, who else thought the 7th book was written like a movie script? I did.

[Sylvia727]

I think anriana thought y'all were significantly older than Emma. And as we all know from xkcd, anyone older than 22 may not crush on her. Also according to this, you may crush on anyone 16.5 to 24. So you're good on that score.

[DarthRetard]

Oh, I'm well aware of the whole statutory rape issue and it's enforcement in my state. On the 16-24 rule, if they're under 18 in florida, it has to be with parental consent.

[Rapscallion]

*sigh*

She's been legal over here for a couple of years - age of consent over here is sixteen for sexual activity with anyone over that age.

Rapscallion

[Greenday]

Yea, I just turned 20 a lil over a month ago. Nothing wrong with me seeing an 18 year old as hot.

[Seshat]

I don't see relative ages as being all that significant. As long as the younger party is mature enough to understand the ramifications, and the younger party's personality is fully formed enough to provide genuine consent, age is irrelevant to me.

What does bother me about the whole 'whoo! She's legal!' thing is the feeling I get. It feels like all that the speaker cares about is getting his (or rarely, her) rocks off. It makes me feel like you see her as a living sex doll, not a person in her own right.

I just want to grab the person's shoulders and shake, while shouting in their face "Can't you see her as a person? Can't you appreciate her as an actress? Do you have to care so much about whether it's legal to fuck her?" I don't, of course. Because I presume (hope!) I'm wrong. I hope the speaker cares about the person as a lot more than that.

And before anyone says 'but you do it too' - actually, I don't. My sexuality and aesthetics just aren't geared that way. I actually find the human physical form ungainly, poorly engineered, and awkward. If I don't find the personality attractive, I can't find a person sexually interesting. Yeah, I'm a freak.

[DesignFox]

<snip> If I don't find the personality attractive, I can't find a person sexually interesting. Yeah, I'm a freak.

I don't think you're a freak at all. I'm the same way.

Although, I agree that the attitude is a little unsettling, knowing what I know about Greenday and Darth, I don't think it was serious. At least, I didn't interpret it that way.

(and above Darth states that he said it jokingly)

Should people look at each other with more respect? Yea. But to me, I'll have a bit more respect for someone who waits until the person is legal to look at him/her as "hot" than someone who flat out calls a 15 year old "hot" (who isn't of the same age bracket).

If Darth or Greenday were 40- I'd think it would be creepy. I don't understand people who want to date (or lust after) someone that could be their child.

[Rapscallion]

If Darth or Greenday were 40- I'd think it would be creepy. I don't understand people who want to date (or lust after) someone that could be their child.

This is the bit that fascinates me. Is everyone who lusts after someone not reasonably within their age a pervert? As far as I understand the situation, men are programmed to breed by mating with females who are of breeding age. Older men can father children - James Doohan, a prime example - into their advanced years. They may need a chemical boost to make the hydraulic parts work right, or use celery as a splint, but the rest often still works.

Catherine Zeta Jones - she married a bloke fifteen years her elder (exactly, actually, since they share a birthday - isn't Google instructional?). Is she a pervert? Is he? That's a fair difference in age - a chum of mine reckoned within ten years was reasonable, though that raises the question of where the boundary should be, and who decides that?

So, where are the limits? If you accept a 'within ten years' rule as a general guideline, obviously you would have to set some limits for lower years, such as a twenty-year-old bloke wouldn't be socially allowed to romaticise a ten-year-old girl.

Now we're into the realm of the state having to get involved - does the government have the duty or power to say who can and cannot romance who? Should everyone have their date of birth tattooed on their foreheads so the police can check if a couple at a bar were allowed to be flirting?

I'm taking this to extremes, I know, but where would you draw the line?

Practically, you're not going to be able to stop people being attracted to each other, no matter what age they are.

Rapscallion

[Seshat]

If Darth or Greenday were 40- I'd think it would be creepy. I don't understand people who want to date (or lust after) someone that could be their child.

By the time it's a 60 year old and a 40 year old, it's not so big a deal. But at 35 and 15, yeah, it really is wrong.