Just Because It’s Legal Doesn’t Mean It’s Equal: The Case for Rethinking Age of Consent

Why “consenting adults” stops making sense when power and age collide

5 min read

1 hour ago

There is a phrase people reach for when they want a conversation to end quickly. You’ve probably heard it. You may have said it yourself.

“They’re consenting adults.”

It’s delivered like a magic spell. As if those three words instantly erase everything else. The age gap. The power difference. The life experience imbalance. The nagging feeling that something about this situation feels off, even if you can’t quite articulate why.

Once “consenting adults” is said, we’re apparently meant to shut up. Stop asking questions. Stop trusting our instincts. Stop noticing patterns. Legality, we’re told, is the end of the discussion.

But legality has never been the same thing as equality, and deep down, most of us already know that.

The recent resurfacing of the idea of a staggered age of consent has made people uncomfortable in a very specific way. Not confused. Not curious. Defensive. Angry. The kind of reaction that usually means a nerve has been touched. Because this conversation forces us to look directly at something we’ve been trained to ignore: adulthood is not…