Thread "Beneficial Friends" in forum "Comic Talk and General Discussion *"

Posted at 4:09AM, Sep. 1, 2009

My "friend with benefits" eventually became my husband. So it doesn't always end in heartache, like your flatmate believes. ;)

Posted at 5:09AM, Sep. 1, 2009

My potential solution is to scrap the age of consent, or make it illegal to have sex before puberty hits (because unless I'm very mistaken, you can get injured by having sex before then) and concentrate on going "this is a condom, this is an STD, if you want to do it then you can at least do it safely".

That's pretty much how it's done where I live. Until you become 18, you're considered a minor and thus can't make legal decisions for yourself. That includes conceding to have sex. If someone older has sex with someone much younger it could become grounds for statutory rape (sex with a minor, even though the minor agreed to have sex). However, if memory serves me right there's a special 16 year old buffer rule. Kids that are 16 and older can have sex with 18 year old and vice verse. Also if both partners are minors then it's not considered a statutory rape. This is to prevent those fun cases where an 18 year old starts to date a girl in a class below him and risk getting branded a sex offender for the rest of his life. However, a 19 year old or older can't bee romantically involved with a 15 year old which is perfectly fine by me.

Anyways the school sponsors a rigid sex education for 16 year old kids and they utilize scare tactics in order to hammer it in. We get to see pictures of inflamed, bleeding penis, vagina with puss flowing out of it and other equally pretty pictures. Simple message: This will be you if you don't practice safe sex (they also do this when they're teaching young kids to brush they're teeth (show pictures of bleeding gum, blackened teeth and similar).

My "friend with benefits" eventually became my husband. So it doesn't always end in heartache, like your flatmate believes. ;)

While that's nice to know, the flatmate could still use this as an argument. Here we have two people who decided to be come "friends with benefits" and they ended up falling in love. While that's all good, the results could become quite heartbreaking when it happens to one of the participants and the feelings are not returned.

Posted at 7:09AM, Sep. 1, 2009

Anyways the school sponsors a rigid sex education for 16 year old kids and they utilize scare tactics in order to hammer it in. We get to see pictures of inflamed, bleeding penis, vagina with puss flowing out of it and other equally pretty pictures. Simple message: This will be you if you don't practice safe sex (they also do this when they're teaching young kids to brush they're teeth (show pictures of bleeding gum, blackened teeth and similar).

yeah, they showed us a lady giving birth. Fucking hell, I never want to see that again. I'll wear protection jeeeeesus, just don't let me ever see a baby get born, ever again. I mean, they didn't need to show us pictures of STDs, that was enough.

Posted at 9:09AM, Sep. 1, 2009

Personally, I think that this whole 'under-age people can't consent' is another of those fantastic pseudo-scientific rationales made up to simply force a moral issue through, parents find it frightening in the west that their children have sex, and parents make laws not children. The vast documentation of countless societies that existed and still exist where it's perfectly normal for 11-14 year old children to practice sex consensually as well as that the 'age of consent' differs dramatically in countries depending on the moral sexual liberal status of the culture there makes it pretty convincing, to me, that the 'age of consent' is just an arbitrary age that has no solid basis and in reality it's dramatically different from person to person and probably coincides with things like first ejaculation and first menstruation, after all, it would be profoundly absurd if humans were the only mammals around that supposedly 'could not' have sex mentally when their body becomes capable of reproduction, that would be a strange evolutionary quirk there.

Geez! It's not against the law for like, 15-year-olds to have sex with eachOTHER, just with someone over 18 (varying numbers per country).

Sure, even toddlers can say 'yes' and 'no' (an extreme example, of course, but you get my drift). But younger folks are easier to manipulate, especially on subjects about which they know very little. It's not FRIGHTENING to western parents, just an issue of protecting children's rights and most of all, safety.

On the frenefits issue, I wouldn't personally (CUZ I GOT A MAN!) but you gotta get your jollies however you can.

AND SKULLBIE THAT PICTURE IS THE BEST PICTURE IN THE HISTORY OF PICTURES!!

Posted at 11:09AM, Sep. 1, 2009

It really all comes down to maturity and how good you feel about yourself. A mentally mature person with a healthy sense of self worth has no problem handling this kind of relationship (I've had several, and none ended badly at all.) People need sexual closeness…but can't always find that one person to fall in love with. Better to be open and have fun, consensual sex with someone you like until the right one does come along. Making a relationship 'happen' when it wouldn't have is the height of folly and is unhealthy for all involved in the long term.

As for the right relationship…I had to wait until I was forty-two before the right one showed up. And I screwed up a lot in between. Wish 'friends with benefits' had been an option when I was younger–but my up-bringing really didn't allow it as an option. You guys are lucky you can do this.

Flatmate needs to STFU as has been succinctly put previously, but I feel the same!

Not touching the underage thing…

Posted at 5:09PM, Sep. 2, 2009

Not touching the underage thing…

Children don't like being called "things". Now you've hurt his feelings.

Posted at 6:09PM, Sep. 2, 2009

Ha-HA! Touching "Underage Thing."

Posted at 9:09AM, Sep. 3, 2009

Pretty cute, guys 8-) There you have a perfect example of the whole 'dangling participle' issue. I've been hoist by my own petard! Yikes!