Terribly lucky?
HAD his grandmother not been visiting over Christmas, a 12-year-old boy's family might not have known that their Indonesian maid was sexually abusing him.
As grandma walked past the maid's room, which had its lights on and its door open, she was stunned to see the boy naked from the waist down and the maid performing oral sex on him.
The 27-year-old maid was yesterday convicted and now faces up to 10 years' jail when she is sentenced on June 2. Source.
Sometimes, I do not know how to react when I read such news. How is that sexual abuse?
For that matter, when two consenting teenagers decide to have sex, what's wrong? I mean, as long as the baby - if any comes along - are provided for, what's the big deal?
We wait till people are legally married and they don't want no children anymore. Then we dangle carrots in front of them to make them have babies. Why not let these baby production machines give birth? I'd gladly adopt a baby or two...
2 comments:
I would suggest that sexual abuse of a minor is more about power and control (ability to do) then it is sex. In societies that I am aware, adult exercise power (I have grave doubts about my own, however, but is another story). From an early age children are taught to obey an adult and ”talking back” can have painful consequences.
Sex is primarily an emotion whose original purpose (we are told) is perpetuation of the species. Initially, the onset of puberty dictated sexual experience.
As society grew in organizational complexity, so too did the restrictions around sexuality including sex with children - predatory behavior by the strong against the weak the primary cause. This attitude and behavior continues to dominate social life today with exceptions resulting in legal difficulties or death depending upon the mood of the mob. As children were initially considered “property”, using property other than one’s own had serious consequences.
Now, overlay this issue with a “religious patina” and the issue of today’s sexual exploitation of children becomes “fleshed out” as it were.
To reply to the specific question asked about the specific issue here, child abuse is defined by the resident society as children legally do not reach the “age of maturity” until an identified point in their lives regardless of the sociological reality involved. The chronological issue of two individuals 27 and 12 respectively would indicate an imbalance in the power and control issue even if the maid of 27 were mentally 12 and the boy of 12 were 27 which is usually not the case in these situations.
This calls into the question of what is "underaged" and what does that mean and who makes the decision?
As it appear, now if a person is forced into unwanted sex, it is defined as abuse; if an underage individual consents to sex with an adult, it is defined as abuse; if a person is hurt by the activity, it is defined as abuse.
There have been societies in history where these definations did not dominate. It is all about power and control and who exercises it and when.
Can I put it in a slightly different way -
Children are these days reaching "sexual maturity" - the age where physical capability and hormonal drives are fully developed - at the age of 13 or thereabouts. Two hundred years back it was 18.
Mental maturity - full development of emotional and personal control - is still not reached until the age of (roughly) 25.
Mike, I agree.
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