h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Moth. Can't you tell the difference between a forced smile and one that is genuine? There are subtleties to body language and I don't think distress can easily and consistently be concealed.

toxx

M Red. Thank you for that note of sanity. I've spoken to girls who are perfectly happy, if not proud, to have lost their virginity at the age of 12. I don't imagine they would have chosen to tell me about it if it were otherwise. We are all different.

toxx

toxxin,

If the photos are not in any way sexual then how could they be sexually arousing enough to stop a paedophile from going out and hurting a child?

>>There are photos of me in my bath and on the hearthrug as a very young child.<<

That is not the same thing and you know it. So please stop tap-dancing about this and be honest. Because I don't think I am misunderstanding you at all.

<>

Hey, you mentioned the photo of you as a very young child on the hearthrug, not me. I am not changing your words. I am trying to get a clear idea of what you mean.

I don't believe that posing naked for photos could ever feel non-sexual to a child. Especially young adolescents. Who are you trying to kid? Yourself?

az

<>

Sure they're playing with their sexuality. Do they understand the consequences of that sexuality? Hell, no. They barely understand the feelings they're having, much less how that affects others. Pedophiles take advantage of that confusion.

'Sex. If it is consentual; it is acceptable, if if it exploitive it is not.
'Sex with animals, children and the weak comes into the second, do we really need a bible to tell us this?'

Why are you asking me? I never said we did...

Confused!

- Jordan

and a very big thank you goes out to Montana Redhead!

really, thanks. I felt I was just on my own with this.




az

az. Do keep up. I only mentioned that after you had already referred to 'very young children'. It is very frustrating debating with someone who constantly changes what has been said and when!

Sexual arousal is obviously down to the viewer in this case, as always. I'm not going to be aroused by naked men. Although the law is iffy about allowing it, I could show you pictures of young naturists who are very obviously not perceiving their situation as in any way sexual. There are very different attitudes in different countries. The Taliban find the sight of a wisp of a woman's hair sexually provocative. Amazonion aboriginals don't bother with clothes. Germans routinely sunbathe naked in the park.

toxx

All...

Can the people on this thread who want to talk about paedophilia START A DIFFERENT THREAD to do it on.

Please.

Jez

The friendships are real enough when in the context of hootoo, and valued they are as well. It's when you try to explain to outsiders that the problems come:

"Well, a friend of mine on the internet, no we've never actually met, no it's not a dating site, it's a sort of message boarding site, we just talk about everything, anyway, this friend...."

School didn't help much for me, either, I was used to being fairly near the top of the heap, clever wise.

toxx - that there's something arty- farty about intellectuallism, I agree wholeheartedy. Clever, not intellectual...

"The friendships are real enough when in the context of hootoo, and valued they are as well. It's when you try to explain to outsiders that the problems come"

yes that can cause problems...
but my real life friends all think i am insane
hate getting into debates with me
and most importently understand what h2g2 is...

after a while thay just tell me to shut up

Well... one of the great things about this thread is that people often diverge from purely theological matters to more practical issues. However, just for you, I'll try to think up an intriguing tangent that might diverge some people from this particular issue.

OK... there has been a lot of talk about people's gods being real for them. There has been some confusion about this, and we are thus led to a very deep question: what is reality?

However, I'd like to go back to specifics for a bit. Going on from what Redmont said about sexual qualities being in the eye of the beholder, we can ask another, very interesting question: what, and where, is art?

Is art in the aptitudes of the artist, in the finished work, or in the eye of the beholder? Discuss.

- Jordan

Anthea! I never tell you that!

I wouldn't dare...

- Jordan

glad to here it Jordan...

"Is art in the aptitudes of the artist, in the finished work, or in the eye of the beholder? Discuss."

i beleve that it is in the aptitudes of the artist...
all the hart all the feelings all the time that went into the art
that is what makes it beutiful

I reckon it's in the eye of the beholder, not entirely but mostly. That's why one person's meat is another's poison.

toxxin,

<>

Please don't use 'that tone' with me, young man!

Oh, toxx, there is no connection between photos of young naturalists and photos of young girls being taken for the explicit purpose of sexual arousal.

<>

Clutching at straws, sunshine. And you know it.

az

Hi Montana

I think you're pretty much spot on.

So much depends on context here - and so much on the intentions/behaviour of any adults involved - that general statements don't help much.

I can't really speak much from my own experience on this one, but

Photographing children nude outside of a certain environment (usually the family) strikes me as at best unwise, and at worst sinister. The risk to the child is great enough, under most circumstances, to outweigh any purpose in doing it.

At a certain age girls become aware of their sexuality, and want to begin to experiment with it. Since, as Montana pointed out, they're not fully aware of the implications, responsibility lies with the adult to behave appropriately. Oddly enough (or perhaps not), I find I see more of this now (I'm 50, for those who don't know) than I did when I was a teenager myself. And no, I don't take advantage of it; I *know* they're just practising - and, of course, I'm the man in the village shop who they've known *forever* and so on.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that adolescents need to be able to feel their way into things in safety. And that safety is the responsibility of adults. This doesn't preclude modelling or whatever, so long as people are comfortable with it, but the environment for it is crucial.

Noggin

Exactly. Experimenting with sexuality is a part of growing up.

No, honestly, I'm colour blind and tone deaf. As far as I'm concerned a Turner works on a lathe, and a Constable keeps the peace. Philistine? Me?

Noggin

Hello all
Back till the next call...!

Posting 14044
I once hade a young daughter ( now she's to big to fit that descriptor), pyjama parties and fancy press was a loved and eagerly awaited event, and a last minuet canalisation lead to floods of tears (bless her little sole.) shopping for cloths and assessors a mere sound in line. You know the rest. When she turned 12 her little sole turned in to a flirtatious debutant in a matter of 2 weeks. followed by a faze of the Treble Teezers, then the hole ball game got turn a bout,. that lasted some 5 years. diminishing to a subtlest form of manipulations. that she still has a god command of to day. But up until she was 10-ish she was utterly unconcerned about nudity. her own or others. I think most young are similar..