Written by: Anonymous

In his last column, John Derbyshire debated whether Jennifer Aniston is still attractive. He pointed out a fact that most open-minded men will not dispute, women are at their most attractive between ages 15 and 20. While personally I think some women are more attractive in their twenties than their teens, the fact remains that 9 out of 10 male readers will read the blog entitled "Attractive 17 Year Old Girls" well before the one entitled "Attractive 27 Year Old Girls".

But I think his point brings up a more important issue at stake than whether or not Jennifer Aniston is still attractive. Let's review the facts:

1. Rational, open minded people can agree that women are often at their most attractive from ages 15-20
2. Rational, open minded people can also agree that girls at this age are likely to be attracted to older men, as:
a. girls this age are more mature than boys this age
b. women are generally attracted to men with wealth and power, which men are more likely to possess than teenage boys
3. We as a society believe that it is not morally appropriate or advantageous for men above the age of 18 to have sexual relations with women under the age of 18, and thus have made the act illegal

These contradictions shouldn't necessarily be too much of a problem, after all, the whole point of laws is to prevent us from committing undesirable acts which our passions nevertheless incline us towards committing. A problem arises, however, when we simultaneously do our best to convince teenage girls that they should be having sex, while outlawing sexual relations with the partners they are most apt to choose. It is also difficult for men to understand the rationale of the law or to take it too seriously when they see the schools handing the girls condoms and see teenage sex normalized and condoned in virtually every form of media.

Perhaps our society needs to consider whether or not we are setting ourselves up for failure.