Sexual Consent and the Adolescent Male, or What Can We Learn from the Greeks?

in Boyhood Studies
Author:
Thomas K. Hubbard University of Texas Austin tkh@mail.utexas.edu

Search for other papers by Thomas K. Hubbard in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Close
Restricted access

Classical Athens offers a useful comparative test‐case for essentialist assumptions about the necessary harm that emanates from sexual intimacy between adults and adolescent boys. The Athenian model does not fit victimological expectations, but instead suggests that adolescent boys could be credited with considerable powers of discretion and responsibility in sexual matters without harming their future cultural productivity. Contemporary American legislation premised on children’s incapacity to “consent” to sexual relations stems from outmoded gender constructions and ideological preoccupations of the late Victorian and Progressive Era; that it has been extended to “protection” of boys is a matter of historical accident, rather than sound social policy. Rigorous social science and historical comparanda suggest that we should consider a different “age of consent” for boys and girls.

  • Collapse
  • Expand

Boyhood Studies

An Interdisciplinary Journal

Metrics

All Time Past Year Past 30 Days
Abstract Views 2916 1387 116
Full Text Views 49 4 0
PDF Downloads 70 6 0