HETERO-PEDO-CHIC: There's an epidemic breaking out! Take this from the New York Observer:
Listen up, fellows: Rich, bored teenage girls in New York City are on the prowl for twentysomething (and in some cases, thirtysomething) men. And this time, they?re not just arming themselves with fake ID?s. Young women barely past puberty?and before, ahem, the age of consent?are sashaying onto the Internet, researching adult life, and constructing elaborate alter egos designed to dupe men all too willing to believe their lies.

Consider Alexis. By 14, she was fed up with the dopey guys in her age group. This 5-foot-9 private-school student and class treasurer likes them older?much older.

At first, Alexis employed a simple alias: She would tell the older men she met that she was a junior majoring in communications at the University of Pennsylvania. Everyone bought the lie. It went well until a 24-year-old man asked her out, and mentioned that he, too, went to U. Penn.

"I, like, totally bugged out," Alexis said.

Hilarious, huh? Of course, there is an honest and coherent philosophy behind the social conservative blind eye to straight pedophilia and obsession with gay pedophilia. An email expresses it simply:
There is a difference too, according to biblical Christian principles. A boy seduced by an older woman is sinning, but a boy seduced by a man is seduced contrary to nature. The B-W relationship is a model of what he should end up doing (having sex inside of a relationship of sexual complementarity in marriage), a B-M relationship is not what he ever should be doing.
I disagree with this strongly. But don't you think that if this really is the belief of Eberstadt et al, they should simply say so and make their hostility to homosexuality as such more explicit, instead of attacking it under the veil of being opposed to child abuse?

I understand Sullivan's irritation with the double standard placed against gays when it comes to pedophilia. Eberstadt and company are seeing homosexual culture (and heterosexual culture) with very tinted glasses. At the same time, choose your examples carefully because social conservatives could read and get some silly ideas. Unfortunately, many of the silly ideas they could get are already in place.

This is almost the exact opposite of what Eberstadt condemns. In this case, it is not men who are taking advantage of young women, but rather young women taking advantage of men. It would only be an example of "pedo-chic" if the men were knowingly attracted to young girls, but from what he cites above the girls in question are going out of their way to conceal their age. If a man is sleeping with a girl who is fifteen and doesn't know it (because she has an ID that says she's 19), how in the world is that pedophilia? In fact, the opposite is what would constitute pedo-chic. Men who buy magazines that star women who are of age, but pretending to be younger, could correctly be accused of a victimless form of pedophilia. Common acceptance of this would constitute pedo-chic. If a legal woman is dressed in lace and stalkings or a catholic school girl's uniform, she is appealing to the darker side of the publication's audience because they are imagining that she is underage and they are vicariously (or imaginitively) gettin' it on with jailbait. There have been recent attempts to ban "virtual child porn" but any attempts would likely be unsuccessful because enforcement would be based entirely on motives and intent, which are practically impossible to prosecute.

So let's talk about the opposite, which Andrew cites above. Let's say that a man goes to a club that does not allow anyone under 21 to enter. He meets a sixteen year old girl there. She purchases a beer with the same fake ID she used to get in. One thing leads to another and they end up at his place. Under Texas law, he is still prosecutable despite the fake ID, that she lied to him, and the fact that she looked significantly older than she was. That is, in my mind, ludicrous. They generally don't prosecute those cases, but if her parents are irate or they feel so inclined, they have before. Sure, he didn't know, but he can't absolutely prove he didn't (you can't prove a negative) and he is guilty until proven innocent. Even if he is innocent, and honestly didn't know, they can still prosecute.

Katie Koestler, a date rape victim that stirred up a national controversy, once came to UH to discuss the topic. I have a good friend who has been a victim of date rape, so you're going to be hard-pressed to find someone who feels more passionately about what should happen to date rapists than myself. So Koestler had me right up until she warned that "silence is not consent." Like bloody hell it isn't! Well, that's not entirely accurate because silence is not consent if she struggles, is a mute, or drunk out of her mind (and he's not). Beyond that, if she doesn't give an indication that she is not alright, it is safe for him to assume it is. When challenged on this and asked if men should have to verbally ask and seek consent as to whether or not it is acceptable every step of the way, she honestly answered yes.

In the case of counterpedophilia that this article demonstrates, he can explicitly ask her how old she is and she can lie and still legally come out of it the victim. Applying that principle to Koestler's date-rape scenario, even if she explicitly consented "every step of the way" he would still be able to go to prison if she consented but didn't mean it (for what it's worth, if he is being overtly physically threatening, this principle does make sense, but Koestler didn't specify that).

Several years back I was at a convention showing off our No-Lyfe stuff and I met a pleasent young lady and we began talking. I was hesitant to make any indication of my age because I thought that she would probably stop talking to me if she found out I wasn't even twenty-one yet. I wasn't looking for a hook-up, but if I was I probably would have pursued it right up until she told me, to my utter shock, that she was fifteen. The age difference didn't matter to her as she was clearly interested even after finding out how old I was. In fact, she had assumed I was even older. What if she had lied? What if she had a fake ID? I could have landed in jail for a law that I didn't even know I was breaking. I understand that "ignorance of the law is no excuse," but in this case I would have been familiar with the law and still not known that I was breaking it. Because of the circumstances (I was in a happy relationship, she was honest), it didn't become that close to occuring, but the simple idea of it is haunting.

There are reasons that statutory rape laws are on the books. At some point, however, even kids must take responsibility for themselves. If the girls the article cites do engage in illegal intercourse, the man doesn't deserve to go to jail. He deserves an apology.