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Sunday, October 5, 2008 12:00 AM

Porn producer invokes the Bush/Yoo defense -- unsuccessfully

Citizens who produce fictitious films depicting "humiliation" and "degradation" will be sent to prison. Government officials who do that in reality will be immunized.

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  • Monday, October 6, 2008 03:04 PM

    @ Aaron Bonn

    I think that 16 is, biologically and psychologically, closer to the mark of actual adulthood than 18.

    However, 18 is the line that has been drawn, and the woman in question was, in fact, over that line. Thus she was, according to both the law and her own testimony, a consenting adult.

    Age of consent for sexual activity with peers should be about 16 in my opinion. However, I would draw a line at sex with people much older due to their more sophisticated ability to manipulate younger people, their likely superiority of position or power, and to those activities in which profit may be a motive.

    Please tell who you reference concerning adolescent psychological development. Even SCOTUS, in deciding a death penalty case, took into account recent understanding of the development of the brains of young people. In short, most psychologists now agree that THE BRAIN lacks sufficient development in most people between the ages of adolescence to about age 22 or so to be able to adequately judge circumstances. In short, girls of 16 may look grown up but, psychologically, they are not. Myelin, which assists impulse control among other tasks, is not fully formed in the brains of sixteen year olds or even eighteen year olds.

    Because acting in a porn movie can not only put them at risk for exploitation but also because they are not able to adequately judge how short term, seemingly profitable decision may affect the way others may perceive them as long as their faces remain recognizable they are better off being protected. Socially, culturally, and in terms of future conventional employability, they will remain at a disadvantage for a very long time, looking over their shoulders, if they try to get out of that life, at a past that may catch up with them. They often, because of their pasts, feel compelled to lie to boyfriends, parents, friends, husbands, co-workers, and employers.

    I, for instance, as a job developer, have tried to find jobs for women who have done sex work. Blowing the likes of Max Hardcore in a movie is likely to get them shit in the real world, so they must either lie on their resumes (Do you approve of such lying?), or leave a large blank in their work histories (Would you hire such a person?), and suffer the consequences of low or no employment.

    Furthermore, I would like to inquire if you have any daughters over the age of 16? I ask this because, unless you are female or have tried to bring up daughters, you probably know nothing about the inner lives of adolescent girls. They are almost all clueless romantics, too many of them looking for love from the wrong people, and seeking admiration and validation of their physical selves with no idea how to get it in a way that is truly to their advantage.

    Also, if you are about to offer some evolutionary psychology crap about how men are attracted to young females due to hip waist ratio, you can save it. None of that says anything about the individual best interests of said females.

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