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Studies also show that men are more aggressive than women. That doesn't mean we should legalise assault.
The law makes a very clear distinction between the two such that self-defense is not assault.
In many jurisdictions, it absolutely is.
A "15-year-old girl who loves her 20-year-old boyfriend" is not the same as "a 15-year-old victim of statutory rape".
A 15-year-old who has sex with her 20-year-old boyfriend is, however, in most US jurisdictions ("Romeo and Juliet" laws tend to allow 4 years or less)
Yes, but the operative fact in that distinction is sexual contact. It's not a crime in and of itself for a fifteen-year-old girl to love a twenty-year-old boy, or vice versa. (Indeed, how could the law ever criminalise emotional states? That's right out of Nineteen Eighty-Four.)
And yet this actually is the law of the land; "woman regrets it afterwards" is the mechanism by which any sex may retroactively become rape. If and when this fails in a court of law, laws get changed to make sure future instances of this succeed.
Most (all?) modern gender politics are.
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While I agree that you can't criminalise emotional states, I'm also dubious about "but she loooves him!" arguments, because 15 year olds of either gender are damn idiots, and we've all seen grown adults ruin their lives over "but loooove!" Women who stay with men who beat the crap out of them, or who beat the crap out of their last girlfriend (but it'll be different with me). Men who get taken advantage of by gold-diggers and emotional leeches.
You won't die of a broken heart if mom and dad refuse to let you run off with your 20 year old paramour, and when you hit 20 yourself, you may be very glad they didn't let it happen.
Agreed. This is the entire reason we recognise the age of majority.
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