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Yes, yes, yes.
A couple of follow up observations:
It seems to me that the argument that teen girls could somehow be classified as women based on their *physical* maturation reveals a lot about how some men see women.
It seems to me that the argument that teen girls could somehow be classified as women based on their *physical* maturation reveals a lot about how some men see women.
It's not simply that such men see women as sex objects, but that they identify a woman primarly in terms of her biology & physicality.
The fact that a teen girl's mind, emotions, & will are NOT fully mature doesn't seem to register as part of defining her "womanhood." Only her body matters in making this determination.
Countless studies tell us that young people's brains are not fully developed until well into their 20s. And young men are regularly excused for their foolish (& sometimes criminal) actions w/ "boys will be boys."
IOW, the double standard applied to young women is measuring their maturity *primarily* by their biology whereas their male peers who also inhabit sexually mature bodies are not deemed responsible b/c we say they are still developing mentally & emotionally.
(And this is nothing to speak of the way that racial stereotypes & prejudice affect the way we view Black adolescents vs. White adolescents...)
But to the original point: It's not simply sexual objectification that leads us to view teenage girls as women. It's the fact that we view female physicality a certain way.
I'd even suggest that we view female personhood differently that we view male personhood. We view women primarily as physical beings & only later think to understand them as rational, emotional, and spiritual beings.
I'd even question the old wives tale that "girls mature more quickly than boys do." Perhaps. Or are we simply looking at a select set of measurements to define female "maturity"?
I'm sure there's more nuance to these Qs than I can offer here. But the convos that have emerged in the last few days about teenaged girls have revealed some significant & troubling assumptions that we have about them and womanhood at large.
PS--Also, lest it need to be stated explicitly, a teen girl's ability to be sexual active & conceive does not mean she is physically mature. Plenty of data about how dangerous teenage pregnancy is--both for mother & child.
