"Jailbait" (Was: Wondering)

[Carol]

Magpie wrote:
> What I find interesting is that being attracted to teenagers seems
totally acceptable when it comes to teenaged girls. I mean, it's not 
considered okay to have sex with them necessarily--hence the terms
"jailbait" etc., but I've heard plenty of straight guys on TV or the
radio or whatever talk about wanting to have sex with underaged girls.
Obviously I don't mean to suggest that your average guy would not see
anything wrong with being attracted to a 16-year-old--I think most
would. I'm just pointing out that there is a certain attitude about it
that is common enough to be recognizable and joked about and it
doesn't seem immediately associated with a problem with the man in
question. On the contrary, it seems unfortunately like it's an
extension of certain views about women. (Sexist views, imo.)

Carol responds:

It may also have something to do with the biological fact that most
girls hit puberty before most boys do, as well. Sixteen-year-old girls
are often virtually indistinguishable from twenty-year-olds, whereas I
know some sixteen-year-old boys who are just emerging from childhood,
and some fifteen-year-old boys who look and act like twelve-year-olds.
(Others, of course, have been shaving since they were fourteen, so it
differs from kid to kid, of course.) I don't want to overgeneralize,
and I'm certainly not in favor of teenage sex (quite the contrary),
much less sex between teenagers and adults, but I wonder if teenage
girls (often) looking older than they really are has something to do
with the phenomenon you're describing. Wearing make-up and what would
have been considered sexually provacative clothing when I was young
may have something to do with it as well. Not sure who's to blame
here, but standards of behavior and acceptable clothing have changed
drastically in the last two decades. Anyone remember the days of the
Beach Party films when Annette Funicello was not allowed to wear a
swimsuit that would reveal her navel?

Carol, longing for the good old days when we had dress codes