INIQUITOUS

CHAPTER XVII

Warning: Repeated mentions of rape and sexual assault at the beginning of the chapter.

There was a full blown argument between classmates. I tried to make sense of it but the squabbling voices overlapped each other and after slipping into my seat and letting my backpack fall from my shoulders, I asked Velvet. "What's everyone talking about?"

Her beetroot red face clashed with her violet hair and bright yellow sweatshirt and glittering eyelids. She parted her blue stained lips, yanking out her lollypop and saying. "How predatory men are who wait for a girl to turn legal for them to then openly lust and attempt to get with her. I said if there were no laws then men who've already sexually objectified a child would have no qualms in chasing after children. It's the law that stops them from going after children and teenagers. Apparently this hit too close to home for some of the boys in class. Listen to their side."

I turned around in my seat. Xander Fox, a boy with curly blonde hair and a twisted nose, spoke passionately. "If she's going out half-naked, she has no respect for herself. She obviously wants the attention of men. And if she comes on to us and its mutual attraction then what's the big deal if we hook up? Age doesn't always matter. If she's developed then she's ready."

"What do you mean by 'developed'?" Leif Smith questioned.

Another boy said. "If she's got breasts and she wants sex then who should stop her? It's natural. We're like animals. Except the law stops us from mating. Men and women were made to mate with each other. If we don't then we get frustrated."

"So you would be alright with hooking up with a child?" a girl questioned.

"I didn't say a child, I'm not talking twelve year olds," Xander said. "Fifteen, sixteen, what's the big deal?"

"The big deal is you're nineteen. Why are you going after a child? Let's not forget how immature and clueless we were at that age. No one can control how their bodies work. We all go through puberty. That doesn't mean they're ready to sleep with grown adults. Girls are sexualised in society and boys are pressurised to live up to an idea of toxic masculinity. Society forces children to grow up quicker than they're ready to. Girls are forced to abide by a school dress code where her shoulders can make a male teacher uncomfortable. That's not a child's fault. It's the adult's fault for not being able to control themselves around children. If you feel or think that way about children it's entirely your fault. What do you not get about that?" Velvet was raring to go.

"So if a kid comes onto me, I'm supposed to say no?" Xander said contemptuously.

"Look at the language you're using. You said 'kid'. Part of you knows that it's wrong. But you don't care enough to change your behaviour. We don't know what we want at that age. We're easily influenced and we're easy to be taken advantage of. It's only as we grow older that the majority of us realise how far the gap is between a nineteen year old and a fifteen or sixteen year old. I'm side-eyeing you right now, Xander. I mean, we've all seen your tweets where you post pictures of grown adults, with the caption 'If she's fifteen, what you doing?' It's creepy. You just want an excuse to rape children. Because let's be certain about one thing, Xander, children and teenagers cannot give consent." Leif slammed his hand on the table, furious.

"This reminds me of Lolita," I began slowly. "The book is incredible, no doubt about that but the narration is awfully manipulative and terrifying. There's a grown man –he's called Humbert– and he's not some leering uncle or social recluse who kidnaps girls in alleyways. He's a charming, handsome, educated middle-aged man who becomes obsessed with a twelve year old girl. He kidnaps her and rapes and abuses her many, many times. He believes the twelve year old is a flirt, that she's a young slut who's a tease and seducer. He manipulates the truth and he paints the victim as the villain. It's easy to get caught up in his lies. But once you take a step back and take a closer look, you begin to realise the truth: she sobs throughout the night, she scratches his arms in attempts to escape, she stares at herself in hopelessness through the mirror. Hubert talks of her as a greedy minx who gives sexual favours in exchange for gifts. The book is about a paedophile who rapes his own step-daughter. It's not a book of romance. In this man's mind, the girl wants him, she is provocative. He's a twisted, perverse rapist. The author wrote the book hoping to change social attitudes towards paedophilia and rape. Nabokov intended to mock and ridicule readers. He wanted to challenge the deep-rooted ideas of young girls in the readers' minds. Ideas such as victim blaming and slut-shaming. The compassion should lie with the young girl rather than the man. She is a child who's been sexualised and made to fit a male's false perspective of women.