Answer my question. If the age of consent was 17, is it still bad to date a 22 year old?
Like I said in my other reply, If you're doing this level of mental gymnastics to justify your relationship... It's probably not appropriate.
Again, if you're the kind of person that really knows in depth what the age of consent laws are, that says an awful lot about you.
To "answer the question" ... Yes, it is bad. The reality of the legal system and the law is that we have to draw an arbitrary line somewhere, but coming right up to that line and bragging about how you didn't go over it is not something to be proud of and it's pretty gross. Be better than the bare minimum.
So in other words, you only have an issue with it because if they engaged in sexual activity, it'd be illegal. And now you're trying to tell me that brains aren't fully developed and that's the issue also.
A brain isn't fully developed until sometime in the mid 20s. But I hear no mention of this from the 22 yr old's perspective.
The age of consent laws where I live are 16. And no one would go on a tirade like you just did spouting age of consent and how it's "taking advantage of sometime by definition".
The truth is, you think there's a power dynamic and the problem here is that you've assumed that any age gap with someone "under the legal age" if being exploited by this part dynamic.
I'm here to tell you that not all age gaps are a result of grooming or exploitation.
My parents have a 20 year age gap. They met when they were 19 and 39. They married at 24 and 44. They've been together 30 years and have 3 kids. I bet if I didn't tell you about their 30yr marriage, you'd just LOVE to sink your opinion into this, hey. But I guess in your mind, he still groomed her?
I was wondering where your personal connection to this was coming from. It makes a lot of sense that you think this kind of behavior is okay when you grew up in it.
It's pretty pointless to keep going in circles on this, you're legally free to hang around all the playgrounds you want. We're just legally free to think you're sketchy while you do it.
My personal connection has been influenced, yes. But realistically, I'm a believer of innocent until proven guilty. I've seen so many relationships with age gaps work well. More so than ones that do not. We just have to be accepting of other people's choices. Doing this makes us decent people. It's the right thing to do, not being judgemental.
My close make is dating someone with a 10 year age gap. It's remarkable how so many people instantly jump on the "you're grooming her" bandwagon without knowing anything about it. SHE'S the older one lol. Not him. But people still assume.
It's the ignorance I'm against. The idea that if there's an age gap, or if she was 18 and he was 24 then it must be grooming and pedophilia or something. That's just do incredibly ignorant. It's not considered grooming if the gender roles are reversed..
Anyway, I digress.