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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 9, 2026

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Good.

Also, nominative determinism claims another victim?

  • -18

If you stuck to "it's stupid to make 18 year old boys convicted sex criminals because they had sex with their 15 or 16 year old girlfriend", you'd be on solid ground for an argument.

You didn't stick to that. You waded right into the morass of "men are attracted to teenage girls", took a turn into the swamp of "15 year olds are plenty old enough to start getting knocked up and having babies", then dived deep into the marsh of "this is all a conspiracy to stop men in their late twenties from forming loving relationships and starting families with girls younger than them", after first taking a little dip in the bog of "seven year gap is the most fertile, so college age guys and high school girls are the optimum couples".

Nobody really believes a twenty-two year old man wants to settle down and pump out babies every year with his fifteen year old wife, so you are arguing for "adult men and young girls sex should be legal and I shouldn't be looked askance at for wanting to bang girls that age when I'm twice her age" and not "this is why nobody is getting married and having kids, we put artificial barriers in the way of Young Love".

Nobody really believes a twenty-two year old man wants to settle down and pump out babies every year with his fifteen year old wife

I don't understand. Lots of men want babies.

Don’t bother. I respect @HereAndGone2’s opinion on many things but she is firmly and immovably convinced as an article of faith that young men are all commitment-phobic lechers.

I think about 10 different posters including myself have told her that that’s not how it is/was for them and it just bounces off. Not like she’s obligated to believe us but she definitely won’t.

Shy male nerds at 17-22 certainly wish that a hot girl with little or no sexual experience would fall into their lap, have sex with and marry them (in that order) and then never look at another man again.

But this is because (1) of male sexual jealousy and fear of performance inadequacy, (2) fear of rejection and (3) male mate guarding instinct, all of which are significant in sexually inexperienced young men. Men also know that having a child with a woman kills her value to other men on the marriage market, which means she is more likely to stick with them (another man she dates as a single mother will likely be much lower value on several or all axes), which makes having children as soon as possible with this hypothetical hot girl who is into you more attractive so she doesn’t leave you.

The evidence consistently shows that young men below their mid-20s (later for late-blooming men) who are attractive, have charisma and know how to talk to women prefer to play the field rather than settle down with their first attractive girlfriend, even though thee are plenty of women their age who would be happy to do so. There are certainly clear exceptions, but not the majority. Most hot, charismatic men I know who did settle down at say 22 monogamously partied and slept around heavily in high school and college (women do this too). Women vary, but I think the average beautiful and charismatic 22 year old woman would be more willing to get married to the right man than the average beautiful and charismatic 22 year old man would be willing to get married to the right woman.