I find it extremely strange the way we construct adulthood as a society. By which I mean, from a legal and to a large extent social standpoint, there is no difference between 18 year old and a 40 year old. The two categories are by in large held to the same level of social and moral standards / culpability / legal framework, and ultimately expectation that anything they do, they are doing as an Adult, and an adult is someone who understands right and wrong, who is mature enough to be held fully accountable for their actions. In terms of accountability, we expect 18 year olds to fully grasp the social / legal consequences of their actions, as well as the morality of them in the same way we would expect a 40 year old to.
I'm gonna be honest, I was a stupid motherfucker who had a ton of growing up to do at 18 and I was absolutely not ready for the sort of social and legal weight that comes with adulthood being hoisted on me at the flick of a switch. You probably were or are in the same boat.
But for some reason both legally and by in large socially, we as a society think it is normal for the things an 18 year old does to follow them for the rest of their lives, no matter how prepared or unprepared they are for that, no matter how socially, emotionally, or otherwise developmentally stunted they are. The second you turn 18, you are in the legal and social category of adult. In terms of culpability and legal status, you have more in common with someone three times your age than someone a day younger than you. And the things you do reflect on you, your character, and even your legal rights for the rest of your life.
There is also the very obvious reality that these standards are not applied evenly. Men, particularly cishet, white men do often get a pass of "this is a young man with his whole life ahead of him, he deserves a second change" for things that are absolutely horrendous (see Brock Turner) while others absolutely do not get this treatment. And others, especially black people, do not really get to be children at any point. This is also something that applies, though possibly to a lesser extent (I genuinely do not know I don't have the perspective here), to trans women as well (and of course, worst of all for black trans women). Just look at how right wingers talk about teenage trans girls as dangerous groomers, sexual predators, even pedophiles when they are still literally children. And once black people or trans women turn 18? All bets are off. There is not "oh but this is a young man / woman with so much potential and their whole lives ahead of them" for us, even when the offenses are not at all comparable to those of men like Brock Turner.
Neverminded the fact that men like Brock Turner rarely seem to feel any remorse, the opposite, even, they are snatched up by an ecosystem that actively encourages them to become worse, to be proud of the heinous things they have done. Meanwhile, no amount of remorse, or years of growth and change and becoming a new, better, more fully realized person can ever erase the permanent black mark on a black person, or trans woman's past because it was done "as an adult," no matter how ready or not they were for that legal and social category to apply to them.
It's pretty fucked. And I don't really know what the solution is here. It's certainly not to take away the rights of the youngest adults even further. But we also shouldn't expect the actions you took at 18 to still define you at 36. I don't what should be done about it, but surely in a good and just world, the sort of world we on the left are supposed to be fighting this would be changed.
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