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Re: Puberty should be voluntary

Posted by diogenes on 2023-October-16 17:55:54, Monday
In reply to Puberty should be voluntary posted by Pharmakon on 2023-October-14 15:49:37, Saturday

A very interesting and thought-provoking proposal. My instinct is to oppose this. But why? I'm not totally sure. But one anxiety I think I have about all this is that it seems to presuppose a notion of children as rational, self-confident and completely independent-minded decision-makers who know exactly what they want. How realistic a picture is this? I suppose my problem is with this notion of the atomic individual.

Given the influence of social media and the like, the right to cancel puberty (something which kids are not now demanding) will itself inevitably create a culture in which more and more kids will come to believe that this is something they want - just as has happened on the trans issue. (And also, for other groups, on the euthanasia issue, in countries like Canada and the Netherlands.) In other words, it will snowball. The question is: will the kids be happier as a result over the course of their lives? If not - and if kids are not currently demanding this 'right' - then wouldn't it be better not to create this culture, and the fear of puberty that such a culture would nurture?

It does seem to me that you are relying on this notion of the absolute right to bodily autonomy, because on this basis it would not be possible to deny kids the right to have sex with adults. In other words, you're hoping that the trans issue will be our Trojan Horse. But do we really believe in such absolute bodily autonomy? Do we believe in the inalienable right of seven year olds to take heroin, for example?

Or is the reason (or one of the reasons) why we believe that man-boy relations should be permitted the fact that sex and love are wonderful - or at least would be experienced as such in a better culture, one that doesn't try to convince kids that their sexual experiences are automatically traumatising? Our cultural norms need to be re-evaluated, so that we replace the current cultural norms by a set of norms that lead people to live more fulfilled and meaningful lives. We must reject Presentism, and see our social norms as historically contingent and worthy of critique. None of this is addressed by this rights-led approach to social issues - though it is a very American way of looking at things, of course. :)

Well, those, for what they're worth, are my initial thoughts, anyway.


diogenes

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