Summary
France’s shocking “Affaire Mazan” trial is nearing its conclusion, with 51 men, including Dominique Pelicot, accused of raping his drugged, unconscious wife, Gisèle, between 2011 and 2020.
Dominique admitted to orchestrating the assaults, recruiting men online, and recording the crimes. While some defendants deny knowing she was unconscious, Dominique claims they were fully aware.
Gisèle waived her anonymity to inspire survivors and highlight issues like chemical submission.
The case has sparked national debates on consent and rape laws, with groups advocating legal reforms to align with societal views on consent.
My only question is how to best handle children having sex with each other. Do you ban it / try to prevent it from happening at all? Do you set limits on how different they can be in age? Is there an even younger age when it’s never ok but it’s ok if they’re both older AND of similar enough age? Is age not even the right way to do it and more importantly is there a better way? Should you have to pass a class where you can prove you know how to apply a condom and obtain consent from others??? I don’t have any good answers to any of these questions but I do think they’re important to ask and talk about. The more common discussion I wind up in is juvenile substance abuse (should you let kids do drugs as long as they’re in your house so you can keep them safe? Are kids who are raised where everybody 14ish and older can have a glass of wine at the dinner table more or less likely to develop alcoholism due to the increased daily presence but decreased taboo?) but this discussion reuses a lot of the same concepts.
Literally all those questions have been answered and studied by scientist and educators. No it’s not a concensus answer but they mainly state, “You should give comprehensive sex education once puberty starts. (smaller more age appropriate conversations should be had about sex throughout a child’s development) With an emphasis on absence as the safest way to avoid pregnancy, STDs and emotional harm. Respectful monitoring of teenagers activities and open access to contraception.” (we’ve all mostly been there. With all the hormones and changes teens bodies are telling them to do something they are not fully mentally or physically able to do safely.)
Not everyone physically or mentally develop at the same rate and purely scientific measuring teens naturally should be experimenting with each other in some form of sexual contact until early adulthood. In which more emotional bounds are formed. Ideally women shouldn’t be having kids until they are around 25 years old. Mentally and physically that’s when their body is truly developed and ready to give offspring and themselves the best chances at survival.
It’s not exactly what you mean, but merely mentioning abstinence evokes abstinence educators in the US for me. Abstinence education is bullshit. What kid needs to be told the only way to avoid STDs is to not have sex? Anyone with a functioning brain knows that. Abstinence educators are by and large Christian fundamentalists who go to schools to lie about sex and try to scare kids out of it.
Somehow I attended a public school which had one of these “educators” come by and preach about the purity of abstinence to my entire class. It was surreal and insulting to our intelligence.
Oh and when I say abstinence. I mean abstaining from having sex with others. Masturbation is 100% encouraged for those experiencing sexual frustrations from puberty. I spent a whole week of lessons on ‘self love’. Must teens act out because a deluge of new, deeper, and ‘unknown’ to them emotions. New meaning emotions that they’ve heard of but are yet to experience. And unknown as sexual emotions that have no real way to explain to someone that is yet to experience them. So the first way to release that stress is either throwing yourself into a HEALTHY combination of hobbies, skill, and/or Masturbation.
This usually was a topic that parents had the most hangups with. I’d always say, do you want to have the conversation with your kid about Masturbation? Or do you want to have them learn about Masturbation from their friends or internet? (it was always a no to both questions.) I’d give them the who curriculum for the sex Ed segment and they’d usually come back with yes I’ll allow my teen to take your class. Hell I’d even allow them to sit in on classes… As long as it wasn’t the same one with their teen. Because that’ll be so messed up to do to your own kid.
Comprehensive sex education covers abstinence. Yes you cover safe sex and iud contraception. Yes, religion has ruined what the perception of abstinence, but that doesn’t change the fact that abstaining is the safest way to prevent pregnancy, stds, and emotional harm. I actually taught sex Ed for 5 years. Ideally teens should only engage in none fluid exchanging sexual activities until early adulthood. I would always joke with my students that “I’m not here to tell you, ‘don’t have sex or else you’ll get pregnant, die, and/or go to hell’ If you are going to have sex please explore other options first, than use contraception if you must. But abstaining is the safest option.”
I also only had religious based sex education where the told the girls in my class sex was like a piece of tape. The more you use it the weaker the bonds you have with partners and God. Soooooo Ya needless to say my graduating class all were pretty much fucking every other day. Absurdity in learning never leads to good outcomes, but honesty will always win out. Abstinence should always be the preference but not the only option, with full on no contraception sex should only been done once you are fully developed and mentally able to take on any consequences of your actions.