@amaranta@freak.university these relationships arent currently doing more harm than good based on multiple research papers id be happy to send you, and if they were legal children would have some recourse when they are harmful that they currently dont. when a relationship is abusive, often you still care about your abuser, often you feel your love for them isnt wrong, but merely that some things they do hurt you deeply, and you want them to stop, and sometimes this is unrealistic and you need to escape, but you might not want to end that persons life by getting them arrested, but if you tell someone they might tell the cops. you might not want them to tell you this relationship is innapropriate just because of the age gap, not because of any of the violence inflicted upon you. abusing and raping people is already illegal and frowned upon by society. by normalising these relationships we 1. allow minors the basic right to determine for themselves if theyve been hurt or not, 2. allow them to speak up without having their desires invalidated and without having to have their partner arrested or shunned by society for the pedophilia but not the abuse. i know a lot of people who felt very hurt when problems with older partners were flattened to the age gap issue and the abuse was ignored outright. i am, one of these people. people barely acknowledged the abuse i suffered! the only wrong anyone ever got from it was that i had relations with someone older than me, except i had that with people who didnt hurt me at all too and to think something that gave me ptsd and something that gave me fond memories are the same is repulsive to me. I think these beliefs of mine probably place me firmly in the pro-c camp, but the idea i'd be blindly in support of this is ridiculous. i think children are vulnerable and i think things would need to change in how society views and treat children so that abuse could be minimise. but i also believe most relationships with these age gaps aren't abusive. and i think age of consent is really arbitrary in its placement. i havent heard a single good reason why it should be placed where it is. brain development, in the sense of maturation to an adult form finishes at 25 on average, and thats just an average. i would be under that age of consent even though im a few years above the ages of consent in the countries ive lived in. though ultimately it could be true these relationships and age of consent are both bad. i think even if they were usually bad though focusing on preventing them from happening would still be wrong. rather i think we should do our best to empower children to be able to leave a bad situation and be able to discuss without fear of judgement and being torn away from their partner how a relationship is going and any concerns they might have. it often takes a lot of discussion like this for someone to even accept a relationship is abusive after all. and a minor is more at risk of going along with the beliefs of an abuser.

also nice pfp :p