Age of Consent

[erastes]

Do come over to Jessewave’s Blog where I have my weekly column and join me in a discussion about the Age of Consent and the pitfalls that this poses for the writer – even more so for the YA writer or the Historical writer.

http://tinyurl.com/pwv4jl

Comments

[sleveen.livejournal.com]

Brilliant. Just read it and left you a comment. A worthy topic, esp. for those of us who write historicals...

[hotchikk.livejournal.com]

Wow, interesting topic. I can't quite understand the legality issue, though. I mean, no actual minors are being exploited when writing about fictional characters having sex. And since when is it illegal to write about illegal activities? Will publishers stop allowing novels with mention of murder, rape, abuse, theft, or jaywalking, too?

[gaedhal.livejournal.com]

For some reason this blog crashes my computer (sigh!),
but the topic is a really important one.

I was writing a m/m romance that took place in 1840's/'50's
and the main character is raised in a brothel where he's
the only boy. There he meets the man who becomes his lover
and mentor in the confidence game -- they travel on the
riverboats working the card games. This is mainly the
backstory for an adult character, but there's a lot of
flashing back to incidents in his "education" and that
includes a sexual relationship with his mentor. This
kind of thing is historical -- there were child whores
in the 19th century -- even Dickens wrote about it --
and it's a reality of the time, as well as important
to the main story. I read "The Persian Boy" when I was
around 13 and certainly wasn't scarred by Bagoas'
sex life at around the same age -- or younger. Yet
I've been "warned" that if I keep up with this story
I should forget anyone ever even considering it. It's
not like I'm writing porn -- it isn't even "erotica" --
it's historical fiction, but I guess the entire story
is a no-go, even if it is valid for the period.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

It's got people jumpy, kiddie porn etc is obviously not what people want to be selling, but surely to god anyone can see that if it's a 16 and 17 year old having sex in England today it's not kiddie porn.

Australia hasn't helped matters by making even fictional characters having sex illegal....