Indeed… concerned that here in the UK we consider someone aged 16 old enough to have sex and, with that, cope with the consequences of this action (the possibility of producing offspring; having to raise new life) yet do not consider someone aged 17 responsible for their opinions. It scares me that we consider sex less worthy of responsibility than shooting your mouth off.
I’ve been blogging since I was 14, and while I no longer have those early entries I know as fact that on the rare (hah) occasion I made an arse of myself, I made sure to make amends. Calling someone sick, a bitch, disgusting, and making libellous claims of harassment to that person’s website host AFTER the fact are not making amends, rather, adding fuel to the fire, don’t you think?
Nonetheless, as with most drama, it quickly runs its course. And here we are… here I am with new subscribers, new twitter followers and most importantly, a new comments policy to help me cover my arse and you cover yours.
04 Jun at 9:30 pm
BUY MY CHEAP VIAGRA PLOX
04 Jun at 11:05 pm
meow! I can still meow in comments right? =^^=
05 Jun at 1:05 am
That’s how it is all over the world. It’s not just the UK because things aren’t much different here in the US. Everyone has their moments of saying ignorant things, the difference between a mature individual and people like her is the fact that they can face the idea that they MAY have been "wrong".
Personally I feel as though she is the sick one. She says that if she walks up to you and tells you to go away while you’re breast feeding that you should not "throw a hissy fit" about it, but isn’t that exactly what she’s doing by creating an entire Facebook group based on one thing she finds unsettling? Not to mention, who the fuck does she think she is walking up to someone and demanding anything from them?
I am always caught off-guard when I see a woman breastfeeding in public because it’s not something that I see often, but at no point do I find it offensive. Like you said in your previous post, if you don’t like it, turn your damn head. Maybe one day she will understand the whole, "Live and let live" but until then she’s going to get a lot shit about her mouth.
05 Jun at 7:56 am
I totally agree with you. 16/17 year old people aren’t all geniuses, but they still should be considered responsible for their actions and words, including when said words are an opinion on something.
05 Jun at 10:16 am
So she’s old enough to enlist (with parental consent, mind) and die for her country but we when she creates a hateful, insulting group on Facebook on a subject she herself admits to knowing nothing about we’re expected not to say anything because aw, she’s just a kid? I don’t buy that either.
05 Jun at 12:44 pm
This is why I despise all these "protect the kids" laws. No glaring at an under-aged child because *le gasp* he/she will end up having a shitty life due to that. On the other hand, it is perfectly OK for them to do much worse to adults, because *patpatpat* they’re still kids.
Just check out the image I linked as website. The image is titled "The reform in education" and the speech bubble says "What’s with these marks?" (In Romania 1 is the lowest, and 10 is the highest. Anything below 5 is fail mark).
It’s ludicrous, really.
05 Jun at 2:40 pm
I think everyone should be looked at as individuals. If someone is particularly ignorant, lacking in age, experience, and maturity — but not especially malicious — then I think that person should be cut some slack. Even intelligent people make mistakes and sometimes say terrible things, simply because they aren’t thinking. Generally speaking, though, I think 16 year olds are too young to be having sex.
07 Jun at 2:41 am
People need to own what they say, but I didn’t quite understand what you were getting at with the "If you’re old enough to have sex, you’re old enough to be responsible for what you say" thing, didn’t seem relevant to your point. People definitely need to own what they say, though, I agree with you there.
07 Jun at 9:54 am
Lee: I believe her point was along the lines of ‘You’re old enough to have sex, therefore old enough to reproduce, be a parent, be RESPONSIBLE for another human being’s life, yet not old enough to be responsible for words you say?’
I dunno about you, but I think the baby is a bigger responsibility. If you can’t accept responsibility for something so much smaller, how the hell will you handle being a parent?
And don’t try and tell me that just because they’re old enough to have sex doesn’t mean they’ll be reproducing. Yes, *I* know about contraception, but apparently the vast majority of those we deem responsible enough to be having sex either don’t know or just plain don’t care. Have you seen how many teenage pregnancies there are these days?…
And don’t go telling me that it’s not that they don’t know or don’t care but that contraception isn’t 100% foolproof. That kind of adds to my point – You need to be responsible enough to handle being a parent before having sex, because even safe sex isn’t always safe.
(The, uhh, arguments weren’t directed at you Lee, just pre-empting some of the idiots on the interwebs.)