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Mental vs Physical age
http://www.starsonata.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=50450		 Page 1 of 2
Author:  Cygnus [ Sun Feb 12, 2012 1:44 am ]
Post subject:  Mental vs Physical age
Question: If you had, for example: (a 20 year old woman in the body of a 10 year old), and (a 10 year old in the body of a 20 year old), which would it be right to be involved with? Furthermore, assume that the mental 20 year old never aged physically, and the mental 10 year old never aged mentally?

It's because of a discussion I had today based on a type of "Fey Folk" in a game. One person claimed that by choosing to play as a race of immortals that stopped physically aging at a young age, you were essentially a pedophile. I had never thought of it this way, and was curious to get other people's opinions on the matter...and this(above) is the way I phrased it to try to get him to see the other point of view.

Curious to see other people's opinions.
Author:  biggee531 [ Sun Feb 12, 2012 1:46 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Mental vs Physical age
It all comes down to legality, regardless of morality.

Is it legal to "be involved" with a 20 yr old? Yes.
Is it legal to "be involved" with a 10 yr old? No.

Done.
Author:  Cygnus [ Sun Feb 12, 2012 1:48 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Mental vs Physical age
biggee531 wrote:
It all comes down to legality, regardless of morality.

Is it legal to "be involved" with a 20 yr old? Yes.
Is it legal to "be involved" with a 10 yr old? No.

Done.


I'm not asking about legality, I'm asking about morality. Laws are meant to support the morals of the age, the morals aren't supposed to support the laws.

EDIT: Furthermore, what is the basis for your age? The number of years since their birth? What if you put a 2 year old girl in cryogenic freezing for 16 years, would she be legal to have sex with? And if not, and you're basing it on their physical appearance, how do you determine what their physical age is? There are 18 year old women that LOOK like 12 year old girls...and the other way around. How do you judge?

Further EDIT: The thing that frustrates me the most about this topic is that apparently it is SO taboo that nobody will even try to discuss it, for fear of being socially destroyed. Hence your above reply; you were afraid of expressing your authentic opinion, so you turned to the laws instead.
Author:  assasinat3r [ Sun Feb 12, 2012 2:16 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Mental vs Physical age
Cyggles, I don't want to get arrested again.
Author:  paxiprime [ Sun Feb 12, 2012 2:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Mental vs Physical age
Our perception of morality comes with the passing of time in sociological beliefs. 400 years ago marriage happened as young as 13 years old. This is mainly because people back then didn't live as long. Now that our perception of time has been extended a good 20 to 40 years, we see the young as younger, and the old as older; with the normal age of fertility to be 30 years old.

Morality has almost nothing to do with religious beliefs as it does our inherit sense to protect the weak.
Author:  Cygnus [ Sun Feb 12, 2012 2:30 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Mental vs Physical age
paxiprime wrote:
Our perception of morality comes with the passing of time in sociological beliefs. 400 years ago marriage happened as young as 13 years old. This is mainly because people back then didn't live as long. Now that our perception of time has been extended a good 20 to 40 years, we see the young as younger, and the old as older; with the normal age of fertility to be 30 years old.

Morality has almost nothing to do with religious beliefs as it does our inherit sense to protect the weak.


That's interesting, but it doesn't answer the question :P
Author:  paxiprime [ Sun Feb 12, 2012 3:20 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Mental vs Physical age
Well logically speaking, I think the mind is more pure at a young age, and a young person would not be mentally able to understand what sex is, or what it symbolizes. They might interpret it as a violent action.

SO, in any instance, a 20 year old in a 14 year old body would be more morally acceptable.

I mean, i don't understand why this knowledge is valuable since its impossible :P
Author:  Threaten [ Sun Feb 12, 2012 3:21 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Mental vs Physical age
you can't judge a person by their mental age, because people at different ages in time acted in different so-called "maturity ages" compared to now so it's all about opinion and law
Author:  Cygnus [ Sun Feb 12, 2012 3:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Mental vs Physical age
According to US law, if there is an animated character that looks like they might be below the legal age in a situation that could be considered to be sexual, the owner or hoster of that material can be charged equally to as if the material was child pornography. Even if, according to the game lore, that character is well above that legal age. (By a factor of 10x or more!)
Author:  paxiprime [ Sun Feb 12, 2012 3:39 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Mental vs Physical age
O_o
Author:  landswimmer [ Sun Feb 12, 2012 3:50 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Mental vs Physical age
Cygnus wrote:
Question: If you had, for example: (a 20 year old woman in the body of a 10 year old), and (a 10 year old in the body of a 20 year old), which would it be right to be involved with? Furthermore, assume that the mental 20 year old never aged physically, and the mental 10 year old never aged mentally?

It's because of a discussion I had today based on a type of "Fey Folk" in a game. One person claimed that by choosing to play as a race of immortals that stopped physically aging at a young age, you were essentially a pedophile. I had never thought of it this way, and was curious to get other people's opinions on the matter...and this(above) is the way I phrased it to try to get him to see the other point of view.

Curious to see other people's opinions.


neither. a 10 year old with the mind of a 20 year old is practically unstoppable, legal "leverage" would mean anyone to get involved with them would have to do whatever they wanted.

as for the 20 year old with the mind of a 10 year old, despite how fucked up it may be, many of these people exist

it is really a question of mind and body, those with adult minds will have no trouble getting what they want even if it is illegal, and those with the minds of children are completely enslaved by their emotions and desires, becoming shallow pleasure seekers who dont think for themselves

i bet you thought you were dealing with a hypothetical scenario, eh.

allow me to pose yet another fucked up situation where you have a 10 year old with the mind of a 20 year old, and a normal 10 year old

is it wrong? or not?
Author:  HitmanCaius [ Sun Feb 12, 2012 3:51 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Mental vs Physical age
Cygnus wrote:
According to US law, if there is an animated character that looks like they might be below the legal age in a situation that could be considered to be sexual, the owner or hoster of that material can be charged equally to as if the material was child pornography. Even if, according to the game lore, that character is well above that legal age. (By a factor of 10x or more!)

Indeed. Which i belive is stupid, Good Jesus, who would watch such a thing anyway.
Author:  biggee531 [ Sun Feb 12, 2012 4:25 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Mental vs Physical age
Cygnus wrote:
biggee531 wrote:
It all comes down to legality, regardless of morality.

Is it legal to "be involved" with a 20 yr old? Yes.
Is it legal to "be involved" with a 10 yr old? No.

Done.


I'm not asking about legality, I'm asking about morality. Laws are meant to support the morals of the age, the morals aren't supposed to support the laws.

EDIT: Furthermore, what is the basis for your age? The number of years since their birth? What if you put a 2 year old girl in cryogenic freezing for 16 years, would she be legal to have sex with? And if not, and you're basing it on their physical appearance, how do you determine what their physical age is? There are 18 year old women that LOOK like 12 year old girls...and the other way around. How do you judge?

Further EDIT: The thing that frustrates me the most about this topic is that apparently it is SO taboo that nobody will even try to discuss it, for fear of being socially destroyed. Hence your above reply; you were afraid of expressing your authentic opinion, so you turned to the laws instead.


I "turned to the laws" because they are what dictate what we can and can't do in modern society.

Generally speaking, age is measured by how old someone is.......

Since our laws come from morality as you claim, obviously it would be immoral. You answered your own question.

Edit:
As far as my own opinions go, you need to ask yourself why the law is how it is.

It's easy to see that the "Age of Consent" is based on the average mental capacity of adolescents in a given society under the age restriction. Sure, there probably are 10 year olds with the mental fortitude/intelligence of a 20 year old that might very well be ready on all fronts for sexual endeavors; however, there are also 20 year olds that suffer from mental illnesses that trap their mental capacity at the level of an average 10 year old.

Regardless of the law, in my opinion, age is based on mental capacity opposed to physical age. However, that does not mean that I seek out 10 year olds that are mentally 20 year olds; it just means that I believe a 10 year old with the mental capacity of a 20 year old could engage in sexual endeavors without feeling traumatized etc.

Long story short, I support this particular set of laws, but I would feel immoral involving myself with someone who was not mentally surpassing the age of consent.

Please, don't insult my intelligence by saying i'm afraid to express my opinion on a public forum that I have been active on for over 5 years.
Author:  Visorak [ Sun Feb 12, 2012 8:42 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Mental vs Physical age
Mental age is is more important. But you can't really prove mental age, so we have to rely on something else... and that is physical age. It's not really fair, but one choice is illegal.
Author:  Cygnus [ Sun Feb 12, 2012 12:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Mental vs Physical age
But that's exactly the point I'm trying to make :P

Assuming that you have no way of knowing their actual, technical age, there is no way to identify their age, which makes this set of laws unfair and biased. And since games usually don't just throw that sort of info out there(would be kinda weird if they did, really), it makes the laws completely arbitrary.

It's like this; if a policeman pulls you over for speeding down a road because you were going "Too Fast", you know exactly what "too fast" is, because we have speed limits and speedometers. But judging physical age is pretty much the cop just pulling you over and saying that you were going too fast, and telling you to take his word for it.
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