Ageist Superstition Is Not Okay: Answering Verity Violet

The plural of "anecdote" is not "data."

In a superlong post partially screencapped below, Verity Violet lists numerous age-gap relationships involving famous people, restricting herself in sexist fashion to those between an older male and a younger female although in reality they occur in all combinations of age and sex. Then she asserts that this is "not okay."

Here's what the science shows: "Constantine (1981) showed that reaction depends on perception of willingness and whether the minor had absorbed the moral negatives about the sex. If the minor both saw himself or herself as willing and had not absorbed the moral negatives, then he or she would likely respond positively; otherwise, negatively or neutral. Rind et al. (2001) in footnote 7 showed how non-clinical research since Constantine has confirmed his conclusion. 'Informed consent' is a legal construct that varies widely across nations, from 12 to 18, and in the U.S. is at the high end (16 to 18). In the psychological literature, it has been assumed without any empirical evidence that informed consent relates directly to how persons react to sex. The unexamined assumption is that people under the U.S. age of consent of 16 or 18, by nature, will react negatively to age-gap sex, but those age 18 and above will react well. This is a serious conflation of moral and legal constructs with a scientific construct. Rather than informed consent, the scientific construct of 'simple consent' (whether the minor was willing in the minor's own perception) is the one that has predictive validity with respect to reactions (Rind et al., 2001)." -- Rind, Bruce (2010). "Social Response to Age-Gap Sex Involving Minors: Empirical, Historical, Cross-Cultural, and Cross-Species Considerations," Thymos, Vol 4, Issue 2, p. 113.

What's really not okay is making facile ageist assumptions that aren't supported by a shred of scientific evidence. Such assumptions can result in tragedies like this one:

A middle-aged woman recounts her positive experience at the hands of a loving adult and her negative experience at the hands of the authorities: "Perhaps you cannot imagine this but, when I was 12, I was very much in love with a man of 50 and he with me. I don't know who made the first move now, but we stroked each other and experienced a sexuality together. It relaxed me wonderfully. "One day my parents found out and the police were called in. The examination was terrible, I denied and denied again. Then I gave in. My older friend was arrested. My parents, after my forced confession, made out a formal complaint. Nothing then could be of help anymore. I have never been able to forget this. It wasn't just. It could have been such a beautiful memory. I am married and have four children. I would not object to their having sexual contacts with adults. I regard it as positive." "Pedophilia: psychological consequences for the child." In Child and Sex: New Findings, New Perspectives, L.L. Constantine & F.M. Martinson eds. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1982