[quote SpidersAreShitheads]@KidneyBeans I'm absolutely not saying it wasn't rape. If she didn't consent, then of course it was rape. Her age doesn't matter - rape is rape. I didn't overlook it - as I said in my post, rape and coercion are bad enough and that's actually the bit we should be focusing on.
My point was that a 17 year old isn't a child. You can be under the age of consent in a country but not be an actual child. That's the point I was trying to make about alcohol. You can't drink until you're 21 in the USA - but that doesn't mean a 20 yr old is a child. In some parts of the USA you can vote at age 16 - if you consider a 17yr old a child, that would mean they are allowing children to vote. Clearly that's not the case.
As I said, having sex with a 17 yr old is sleazy and awful, but it's not sexual intercourse with a child. I don't really like the sensationalism or the creeping inaccuracies tbh. That's my issue. Rape is bad enough on its own. We don't need to imply that a 17 yr old is a child to make it sound bad. Rape is horrendous, and a 17 yr old will be a young and vulnerable adult - but it's not child rape.
I've not seen PA implicated in any of the other cases but in all honesty, I've not followed it really closely. I agree that Epstein/Ghislaine's history of younger girls is horrific and that absolutely qualifies as child trafficking and child rape.[/quote]
Has anyone said he's had sexual intercourse with a child?
I must've missed that post. I don't think it's representative of the thread.