Most teenagers are curious about sex. Statutory rape laws are not only for the protection of minors against abuse by adults; they are also for the protection of minors against their own unformed abilities to make decisions about some things.
No young teenager was ever harmed by deciding to wait until he or she was of legal age to have sex, while many people are harmed by sexual relationships that happen when they are too young.
The conglomerate is trying to exploit the quoting of Ms. Ora that she "wanted" the sexual relationship that she had at 14 with a 26-year-old. It's obvious from reading just a few articles about her that she had insubstantial self-esteem at 14, that she had a lot of trauma in her life starting from when she was practically a baby, that she had a difficult relationship with her parents into her adulthood, and that she is hyperfocused on sex in the way that many people in the entertainment industry are.
I live in a homeless shelter. On the nights when I don't get a bed through the lottery, I sleep on a mat on a floor in the lobby. If I were asked "Would you rather sleep in the lobby or in a bed at the Pine Street Inn dormitory," I would say "I'd rather sleep in a bed." Technically, I'd be saying that I "wanted" to sleep in the bed. What I would not be saying in answer to the question is "I want to sleep in a bed that homeless women have slept in hundreds of times, with scratchy blankets that definitely don't get washed every day, a thin and lumpy pillow, and a mattress that has a mattress cover with unwashed yellow stains when I don't get a mattress that has a better cover or is in better condition." What I'm saying when I say "I want to sleep in the bed" is "I'd rather sleep in the bed and be able to get up at 6:00 a.m. than on a mat on the floor and have to get up at 4:15 a.m." I would also rather sleep on the mat than be outside all night.
When I participate in the bed lottery every day, that participation doesn't mean that I "want" to be homeless. It means that I know that being homeless in a shelter is better than being homeless outside all night. I know that there are better situations to be in than homelessness; I am not currently fortunate enough to be one of the people who is in a better situation than homelessness.
I am fortunate enough to know that being homeless is not all that I could ever hope to be. Most adults know that there are better situations than homelessness. Babies don't know that, though. Toddlers who have been homeless since birth probably don't know that, and there are homeless toddlers. By the time that homeless children get to be just a few years past toddler age, they probably know that there are better situations than homelessness, but there's nothing that they can do to change their lives; adults have to do that for them.
Children know what they are taught and what they are able to observe from the world around them. If a child is born into homelessness, that's what that child's knowledge of life will be and his or her perspective about what he or she "wants" and hopes for will be different from what a child born into secure financial conditions will want, hope for and know to be possible.
If you don't know that better things are possible, you will think that you really want the things that are available.
Copyright L. Kochman, October 27, 2015 @ 7:45 a.m.
