
Deleted member 2403
Emerald
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2019
- Posts
- 49,256
- Reputation
- 127,675
The idea that teenage girls “look grown nowadays” is rooted in pedophilia
I've seen this *a lot* on social media and I've personally experienced this as a minor so I wanted to speak on it. I'll see a teenage girl on any of my social media platforms and her comments will be filled with people (often grown men) saying she looks way too old for her actual age, accuse her of "trying to be grown", and I've even seen comments calling these girls jailbait when they're literally doing nothing wrong. They're not wearing anything abnormal for their age nor do they look like grown women, they dress and look like a teenage girl and I can't help but notice the pattern of the only reason why these girls get treated like this is because they fit into the beauty standard.
I cannot stress this enough, just because a teenage is blessed with features that coincide with the beauty standard does NOT give you the right to sexualize her and force all these weird implications that these young girls somehow look like women because they're simply pretty. Stuff like this gets on my nerves because I can't help but think that people who push this idea that young girls "look so grown nowadays" are shaming young girls rather than addressing the jarring number of adult men who sexualize young girls and than blame the CHILD (because that's what they are) for said sexualization. As a minor myself who had to deal with this type of stuff I can't also help but notice I've only had this issue with men, not once has there been an adult woman who thought I was a grown woman and that's one of the main reasons why this whole narrative of teenage girls looking more adult just seems like an excuse men make for being attracted to minors despite themselves.
I as a teenage girl can tell the difference between a teenage boy and an adult man no matter how attractive that teen boy is because teenage boys and grown men do not look the same and the same applies with women and girls. At the end of the day we as a society have to move away from the notion that it is somehow a minor's responsibility for adults sexualizing them, (which not only legally speaking is wrong, it's wrong on a scientific basis. It's a fact that minors cannot give consent or even sexualize ourselves because to consent or to even sexualize one's self implies that the person understands what they are doing and the gravity of what's going on which minors aren't capable of because our brains are not developed to the point we cannot understand the whole reality that sexualization entails) minors can be sexual because teenagers experience sexual attraction but there is no legal or psychological basis where they sexualize themselves because we know minors are not mentally capable of understanding this, so it's on fully developed adults to not reciprocate because of the power dynamic.
The idea that teenage girls are somehow bringing sexualization onto themselves is just another aspect of victim shaming culture which excuses the predator while blaming the victim. There needs to be more conversations about how women are so sexualized by society that as soon as a girl hits puberty she's seen as a sexual object by men and we need to have the conversation about how men often get away with having a pedophilic mindset (and yes, even if you wouldn't personally sleep with a teenage girl doesn't mean you picking them apart based on sexual standards and giving a child autonomy they don't have isn't predatory behavior).
Teenagers should be free to be children, no matter the gender teenagers are, they should be allowed the savor their last years of childhood without dealing with this. If you're an adult with the "Teenagers look so grown nowadays" mindset I want you to seriously revaluate why you think that and *STOP*.
I've seen this *a lot* on social media and I've personally experienced this as a minor so I wanted to speak on it. I'll see a teenage girl on any of my social media platforms and her comments will be filled with people (often grown men) saying she looks way too old for her actual age, accuse her of "trying to be grown", and I've even seen comments calling these girls jailbait when they're literally doing nothing wrong. They're not wearing anything abnormal for their age nor do they look like grown women, they dress and look like a teenage girl and I can't help but notice the pattern of the only reason why these girls get treated like this is because they fit into the beauty standard.
I cannot stress this enough, just because a teenage is blessed with features that coincide with the beauty standard does NOT give you the right to sexualize her and force all these weird implications that these young girls somehow look like women because they're simply pretty. Stuff like this gets on my nerves because I can't help but think that people who push this idea that young girls "look so grown nowadays" are shaming young girls rather than addressing the jarring number of adult men who sexualize young girls and than blame the CHILD (because that's what they are) for said sexualization. As a minor myself who had to deal with this type of stuff I can't also help but notice I've only had this issue with men, not once has there been an adult woman who thought I was a grown woman and that's one of the main reasons why this whole narrative of teenage girls looking more adult just seems like an excuse men make for being attracted to minors despite themselves.
I as a teenage girl can tell the difference between a teenage boy and an adult man no matter how attractive that teen boy is because teenage boys and grown men do not look the same and the same applies with women and girls. At the end of the day we as a society have to move away from the notion that it is somehow a minor's responsibility for adults sexualizing them, (which not only legally speaking is wrong, it's wrong on a scientific basis. It's a fact that minors cannot give consent or even sexualize ourselves because to consent or to even sexualize one's self implies that the person understands what they are doing and the gravity of what's going on which minors aren't capable of because our brains are not developed to the point we cannot understand the whole reality that sexualization entails) minors can be sexual because teenagers experience sexual attraction but there is no legal or psychological basis where they sexualize themselves because we know minors are not mentally capable of understanding this, so it's on fully developed adults to not reciprocate because of the power dynamic.
The idea that teenage girls are somehow bringing sexualization onto themselves is just another aspect of victim shaming culture which excuses the predator while blaming the victim. There needs to be more conversations about how women are so sexualized by society that as soon as a girl hits puberty she's seen as a sexual object by men and we need to have the conversation about how men often get away with having a pedophilic mindset (and yes, even if you wouldn't personally sleep with a teenage girl doesn't mean you picking them apart based on sexual standards and giving a child autonomy they don't have isn't predatory behavior).
Teenagers should be free to be children, no matter the gender teenagers are, they should be allowed the savor their last years of childhood without dealing with this. If you're an adult with the "Teenagers look so grown nowadays" mindset I want you to seriously revaluate why you think that and *STOP*.