How old is fifteen really?

age is so arbitrary. i'm not saying old men need to be taking advantage of the innocence of young teenage girls, or that i think teenagers should be sluts.

however. i agree about the fact that we are socializing adult bodies to behave as emotional children. and the conflict between these two expectations (the expectation of nature, as evidenced by the human body and its development) and the expectations of society, family, religion, etc. etc. cause the turbulent up and down shit we call normal teenage angst. guess what? i don't think that's necessary. instead of lying to children/teenagers and infantilizing them, treat them as intelligent human beings. don't keep information away from them. don't tell them that they don't know what's up. i think this would make a huge difference in the actions and behaviors of teenagers that we see.

for example, the 15 year old girl walking around dressing like a "slut" or whatever. she feels like an adult in her skin. she wants to look like an adult. she has adult cravings, adult sexuality, she needs to be respected as an adult. but she's not given any of that. so she has to take it for herself without guidance, and because of her lack of experience, because she's been kept in the dark about "adult things" she has no clue as to what she really wants to be doing or dressing like.

misinformation is the greatest sexual problem we have today in my opinion. misinformation and lack of any information... they go hand in hand and lead to knocked up tramped out vd infested teens who then go on welfare and drain the economy of our resources, all because we're scared to say sex is cool, sex is normal, this is a condom, how you use it, experiment and have fun, but this is how to be careful and here are some condoms and free birth control. oh yeah... why are we scared to give acurate, interesting, informative and COMPLETE sex education???? of course.... because god hates sex and hates people who want sex. unless you're married and want to have babies. but even then you should feel guilty about it.

lol sorry for the rampage... i feel a little strongly about this!

 

Thank you,that was really helpfull

 

Too young to know anything. I speak from experience here.

 

.....meh. can't wait till' i turn 16 next week.

 

I completely agree with absolutely everything you just said. The only thing I would add is that it's important in sex education to let everyone know that it's not something they have to do if they don't feel like it. I definitely think they should know all about it-- treating it like it's a horrible dirty sin is absolutely wrong, and I don't think anyone should be telling them explicitly not to do it, but I think that sex education should be more than just handing out information. I think that educators should also start nurturing a more mature attitude towards sex. By that I mean that kids need to know that being unsure is not their own fault, and does not make them weird or different... just like being very sure doesn't make someone weird either.

As much as the conservatives are putting pressure on teenagers to refrain, you have the media putting pressure on them to go ahead and do it, because it's part of becoming an adult, just like getting your driver's license and getting a job. I don't think these kids who are dressing in really risque clothing are necessarily saying 'I want to have sex', they're just trying to find themselves. But at the same time, I don't think they have a clear idea about what sex really is, or what it could be. They're just trusting that the reaction they're seeking is the one that they really want, or the one that's only natural for someone their age.

I'm not advocating abstinence, but just that being an adult has a lot less to do with suddenly realizing you want sex and more to do with having a responsible and open-minded attitude towards the decisions you make... kids (well, young adults) need to be confident about what's right for them and they need to be able to start making their own decisions about things, including whether or not they want sex, or whether it's right for them.

Ignorance is never a solution, but neither is 'throwing yourself to the wolves'... if you ask me, the best course of action is to slow down and take your time until you know for sure what's right for you.

 

hmm, well.
i see a lot of these girls walking around, dresses suggestivley.. as much younger ages, like 12! but thats besides the topic. i'm 15, and i like to dress a LITTLE sexy, but i leave some to the imagination, which i think you shoudl do at ANY age. as for whomever's sister it was [sorry, didnt memorize the name] engaging in 'oral sex', that's her decision. i'm 15, and i have an active sex life with my boyfriend. i am responsible about it, on the pill and such, i've been tested for STDS etc. i feel that at 15, i have to explain everything that i do, constantly defend myself. i feel, and have been told, that i am much more mature than many people my age and even those older than me, and i can't wait to turn 16 so that MAYBE i'll get some respect, even though i'll be doing the exact same things as i am doing now. i don't think i know everything, but i think i know more than i'm given credit for, based on how many years ive been breathing on this earth. i truly believe a person should be based on the age of their mind. [not to say that a 50 year old man having sex 14 a fourteen year old is okay because 'they're both mentally the same age', okay, there's some boundraies.]

 

Being fourteen is similar to being fifteen so I guess I can relate.
I have grown up with my father and have had no other children around, so I am mature. But I am not mature enough to walk around with tiny skirts and boob tubes, the girl obviously has no self respect.

xo

 

I think I love you!

 

i think that girls should not be having sex at the age of 15...but i do believe that a lot of people are old soals and actually ready for sex at the age of 15.

 

Age is not just a number.
Lets say puberty hits at 12.
A 15 year old has 3 years of practice at being a biological adult.
An 18 year-old has 6 years, twice the amount of experience.

There is a difference.

This is why its more important that the 15 year old be educated about sex and sexuality than the 18 year old. Its new to the 15 year old, they need their experience supplemented by instruction.

 

Most of man's time on earth man's life was alot shorter in so in the past the shorter you lived the earlier you so called lived as an adult. Ladies and men were married as young as 9-12 of age so they would see the kids live as long as possible . Just having kids way back in time was real dangerous to a ladies health.

 

15 is still just 15 no matter how you cut it.

Peace

 

15

 

I wait longer until a special one comes along by then you will enjoy it more and feel OK will it all.

 

im gonna be 23 next month, and ive had the same view on life since about 19..

the reality is: you can never know enough, no matter how old you are. wisdom is one of the best tools in this world to have, and that comes with age, & trial and error..

so stay young for as long as you can, 21 is fun for the first few days cuz you can get trashed in bars, but after reality sets in.. it sucks. bills, car payments, phone payments..

i wish i could be 16 again, & go through life, knowing what i know now.
id be a millionaire eheh

 

Age doesn't bring wisdom. it brings wrinkles.


Learning yourself, your boundaries, your needs, and how to live by those, and not trample all over someone else's needs, boundaries or self, is wiser, I would say, than having lived three score and ten years. I've met a great many adults who had no wisdom, no common sense at all, and a great many 'children' who had a level head on their shoulders. To me, the infantilization of teens into emotionally crippled 'adults' is more frightening than teens having sex.

 

Up until the Renaissance the concept of even childhood was almost unknown. Look at Art of the time, children are simply smaller, otherwise they look just like adults.

Adolescence was invented around 1850, about the same time child labor laws came along. The idea was to hold the burgeoning population off the labor market, since otherwise children would take their parents jobs in the factories too soon. Children before had been seen as necessary to take care of the parents in their old age but the factory owners knew it was cheaper just to work their employees to death, so the built in retirement from about 60 to 70 which peasants had, (since farm work broke them down too much after about 60) had to be shifted to the front rather than the rear of life. This is why education was seen as necessary from then on too.

Social reform has changed everything and made that unnecessary (and pretty soon work at all probably will be too, but that's irrelevant to the point here) so we should go back to the way it was. People should, at least from a sexual standpoint, be considered fully adult from the time nature intends. (and 15 is way past that) After all, we have contraception, so sex should be seen as mainly for pleasure. (Which is nature's way too, since most sex even w/o contraceptives doesn't result in anything).

The main thing we have to do is cure all the STDs. I find it disgraceful that today, decades after a cure was discovered, even syphilis is still a terrible scourge in most of the world. And that we have AIDS? don't get me started.