age disclamer

[Guest]

why not use an age disclamer in stories that says all participants in this story are of legal age and then let the reader decide on thier own.

as for sitcom story where the character is say 16, but the actress is really 23 like on 90210? can you write about the character.

 

[Guest]

Bad news, I am afraid.

The politically correct lobby says sex does not happen until you are eighteen in the USA based part of the net.

Just as some states in the USA say that pi is exactly equal to three, facts are irrelevant. You can write about rape, speeding, murder and whipping, but anyone 17 years, 11 months and twenty-seven days may not have sex in a work of fiction.

It was Charles Dickens who wrote that "the law is a ass" and he did not refer to a part of the human body but to the kind of animal used for riding in to Jerusalem a couple of millenia or so ago.

 

[Guest]

as for sitcom story where the character is say 16, but the actress is really 23 like on 90210? can you write about the character.

You're not writing about Shannon Dougherty(sp?), you're writing about Brenda. The actress could be 40 for all anyone cares, but if her chatacter is under 18 in theory that's what you go by.

 

[Axeltheswede]

age disclaimer

A lot of discussion has passed through these boards about the over eighteen age requirement. The simple solution is to omit any reference to age in a story. There is certainly no requirement to assign an age to any character. In most stories general information is sufficient to define age. Example: protagonist is an attorney which presumes seven years of college.

How old is "young"? How old is "experienced"?

Omit references like putting a character in the third grade and you are home free in regards to the age requirement.

 

[Guest]

Re: age disclaimer

The simple solution is to omit any reference to age in a story. There is certainly no requirement to assign an age to any character. In most stories general information is sufficient to define age. Example: protagonist is an attorney which presumes seven years of college.

Yes, that would almost work, but be careful about references to physical characteristics also. A male with a three inch penis and no pubic hair would certainly be a problem. I find it safer to specify an age of 18+ and then write about this inexperienced virgin who has never masturbated and has only just started to consider sex as being of interest, etc.

 

[Axeltheswede]

age disclaimer

Interesting example, Charm. How about your guy with the three inch donicker and no pubes? He's a sixty year old, underendowed male on chemotherapy.
I still think you can be ambiguous on the age issue and come out all right.
Killermuffin posted a story a while back. I think it went in under the incest category. She omits any references to age. My impression was the female character was a molestation victim at the hands of a male authority figure. No hard refs to age or context to define age.
It can be done. As an author I know it is hard not to write with at least an approximation of age. That mental image translates into references in the story. Ambiguity can be maintained with some effort. It is not easy.
Give me another example.

 

[Guest]

Re: age disclaimer

Give me another example.

In my (as yet unfinished) novel "Paula" in the Helen series (three published commercially so far, 2 in the works) it is necessary for the timing to work that the protagonist is sexually experienced at 21. The loss of virginity scene was set in school where this gawky mid-teens was hanging round the football team and got used by them as a "bicycle". Then as she grew up she was introduced to soft and then hard drugs by her college lecturer and then she was a drug baron's woman for a short while. She murdered him and we get to the real action, which is in jail, and there she has to be only 21 for plot reasons. She packs an immense amount into three years to satisfy the US market with the convention that 15 year old girls don't have sex at school. If you read it (email me if you want to see the extract) we have an 18yo behaving like an emotionally immature 15yo full of uncontrolled hormones.

Well ... you did ask.

 

[Axeltheswede]

age disclaimer

OK. You got me on that one. But still, couldn't you do the previous experience as a memory flashback and still keep the age issue ambiguous?

 

[Guest]

Re: age disclaimer

OK. You got me on that one. But still, couldn't you do the previous experience as a memory flashback and still keep the age issue ambiguous?

I may be wrong, I'm sure we'll be inundated with corrections if I am, but I think:

"She remembered her fifteenth birthday because that was when X did Y to her"

is just as politically unacceptable as

"It was her fifteenth birthday and it was great. The icing on the cake for her, and all the candles, was that X did Y to her"

and these unnamed agencies who police the political correctness of sites in a "free" country where everyone has "First Amendment" rights would be just as irate about the former as about the latter.

Back ot the problem: No matter what I do, she has packed an unbelievable amount of experience into three years if it is to satisfy the US Guardians of Moral Myths.

Changing the plot to make her 24 when she gets into jail would make it a different book. The thing hinges on an older person who likes their partners as young as possible. Of course it is an adult jail, so there is no possible problem with under-age inmates. However, young-and-experienced is a difficult one. One of my other books deals with the same older person with an eighteen year old young-and-inexperienced.

See also on a related topic Congress Shall Make No Law...
by bearlee <memberpage.php?uid=52318>.

PS for Axe only: I read this board after I answered my mail.

 

[Fotoraver]

hey something to ponder: the US Supreme Court decided last week that animations or depictions (computer, etc...) of underage sex IS in accordance with the first amendment. BUT not accual images.

hummm.... something for the pedophiles to drool over...


no thanks. give me someone who knows how to kiss at least.

 

[Guest]

hey something to ponder: the US Supreme Court decided last week that animations or depictions (computer, etc...) of underage sex IS in accordance with the first amendment. BUT not actual images.

I missed that, and can't find it. What was the case?

 

[Fotoraver]

just heard about it on NPR this last week.
the us supreme court overturned a ban on kiddie porn that didn't involve real live people.


that's just the jest of it.