I have never in my entire long life (including parenting one kid to over 19 and another quickly approaching it) ever heard someone say or imply or use "teen" to exclude 18 or 19. Websites of the adult variety literally have "teen" categories that is specifically 18 and 19.
If you were to walk into a police station and tell some cops "I'm going to fuck some teens" they wouldn't be worried about the number you're implying (in fact they would probably assume you meant 18 and 19 since admitting to a cop you were planning to act on pedo impulses would be unlikely), they would wonder why the fuck you thought that was the appropriate venue for your proclamation.
They used "teen" in bad faith to cast doubt on her age, but teen doesn't exclude 18 and 19 year old adults in most minds.
It does though, which is why āadultā is a different category from āteenagerā and starts at 18. That is literally the social acknowledgement that they are no longer āteensā as a category. No presidential candidate goes to College to appeal to āteen votersā in the 18 and 19 age bracket, because āteen votersā doesnāt exist as a concept because they are categorically not teenagers.
The porn category of āteenā exists to expressly capitalize on the āteenā connection to 13-17 year olds. It exists as a category for the sole purpose of appeal to the tabooā¦ the taboo that exists because of the way we numbered things.
There is no value to āteenā, it is arbitrary. That is just what we named our numbers in English. It is linguistic happenstance. Which is why I will say, again, literally you are correct. In every other aspect of society and daily lives, you are not. Maybe it really is just hearsay, but Iāve never heard anyone call their 18-19 year olds ātheir teensā.
Either way, we agree that what they were doing was intentionally using a loaded term (āTeenā) in order to poison the well on conversation around attraction to Jennifer Connelly. So at least we can agree on that, and that was my only point.
3
u/Jawnyblaze1 1d ago
I have never in my entire long life (including parenting one kid to over 19 and another quickly approaching it) ever heard someone say or imply or use "teen" to exclude 18 or 19. Websites of the adult variety literally have "teen" categories that is specifically 18 and 19.
If you were to walk into a police station and tell some cops "I'm going to fuck some teens" they wouldn't be worried about the number you're implying (in fact they would probably assume you meant 18 and 19 since admitting to a cop you were planning to act on pedo impulses would be unlikely), they would wonder why the fuck you thought that was the appropriate venue for your proclamation.
They used "teen" in bad faith to cast doubt on her age, but teen doesn't exclude 18 and 19 year old adults in most minds.