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Roy, Ed and pedophilia
Feb. 16th, 2004 10:33 amSo, a post Trudy made got me thinking once again about one of the things that squicks (or possibly kinks) people about Roy/Ed: the age difference and Ed's youth.
So, in present-story-time Ed is 15 and Roy is 29.
And?
Most fiction deals with either Everyman characters or extraordinary characters. In the case of FMA, and these two in particular, they are definitely extraordinary. In those circumstances, I'd say it's more enlightening to look at the personalities than immediately hyperventilate over the numbers. Anything else is too reminiscent of the height rule. The mindset that assigns dominance based purely on inches strikes me as pretty much the same one that assigns naivete/stupidity/perversion based purely on years.
So let's start with Ed. Is he innocent and/or naive? On most topics, I'd venture a resounding NO, not by the time he's 15. However, based on his reaction to Psiren, the only time we've seen him dealing with sexuality of any kind so far, his flusterment does seem to indicate that he's not cynical, jaded, or knowing on that topic. So in a sexual situation we might expect 15 year old Ed to lose some of his typical combination of fire and sang froid, and become more hesitant. Possibly even freaked out, depending on the circumstances.
Does this set him up as some kind of innocent victim of sexual predation? I really kind of doubt it. For one thing, if he didn't have some reason to a) notice and b) accept an advance I'm not sure it would even get past his focus to register at all. (You have to admit, Psiren had all the subtlty of a sledgehammer.) Roy gets past his focus, all right, but Ed's awareness of him is very adversarial--which gets us to the other thing. Ed is more than capable of taking care of himself. You notice he gets over his flusterment with Psiren and carries through his chosen response without getting sidetracked again.
On to Roy. This is actually the part I consider most problematic--what reason Roy would have to be sexually attracted to a 15 year old that he's known since the kid was 12. Of course, Ed's pure jaw-dropping gorgeousness is a darn good place to start, but would that overcome Roy's presumed awareness that Ed is rather emotionally innocent about romance and sexuality? I don't think so; I don't think Roy is the kind to take advantage of Ed's inexperience (which a manipulator like him probably could), and I certainly don't think Roy would endanger their working relationship by making a serious pass unless he had some solid indication that Ed would welcome it and be able to keep working with Roy effectively. He's generally too practical.
That is why I tend to write Ed older in my Roy/Ed fics.
Is this how I feel about real life liasons with this kind of age gap? Why yes, in fact, it is. It depends on the personalities. Most teenagers do not, fortunately for them, have the life-experience that would catch them up to someone twice their age. That is what makes most cases of sexual relationships with those age figures fine examples of predation.
I would point out that in most cases, it's up to the partner with greater experience to realize that fact.
I mean, when I was 19 and had an unspeakable crush on a really cool professor (almost exactly twice my age at the time), I would have been perfectly happy to go to bed with him given the slightest opportunity. He was the one who had to be responsible and restrained and think about whether it would be a good idea to sleep with a student who was a) still pretty damn innocent and b) rather messed up into the bargain. Thank goodness he did, too, because it would have been a bad idea.
Hmmm. I hadn't thought about it before, but it's quite possible that part of my liking for Roy stems from his similarity to that professor. *collapses laughing* What a thought!
Eh, while we're on the subject, this is similar to why I'm happy to write present-time Roy/Hughes, provided Gracia knows about it. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary I like to think Gracia has enough faith in Hughes' obvious deep and abiding love for her to not worry about him occasionally sleeping with his best friend, that Hughes loves his wife far too much for her to be anything but first in his heart, and that Roy would be fine with all this.
Hey, I said I like to pick the non-depressing options to write about.
So, in present-story-time Ed is 15 and Roy is 29.
And?
Most fiction deals with either Everyman characters or extraordinary characters. In the case of FMA, and these two in particular, they are definitely extraordinary. In those circumstances, I'd say it's more enlightening to look at the personalities than immediately hyperventilate over the numbers. Anything else is too reminiscent of the height rule. The mindset that assigns dominance based purely on inches strikes me as pretty much the same one that assigns naivete/stupidity/perversion based purely on years.
So let's start with Ed. Is he innocent and/or naive? On most topics, I'd venture a resounding NO, not by the time he's 15. However, based on his reaction to Psiren, the only time we've seen him dealing with sexuality of any kind so far, his flusterment does seem to indicate that he's not cynical, jaded, or knowing on that topic. So in a sexual situation we might expect 15 year old Ed to lose some of his typical combination of fire and sang froid, and become more hesitant. Possibly even freaked out, depending on the circumstances.
Does this set him up as some kind of innocent victim of sexual predation? I really kind of doubt it. For one thing, if he didn't have some reason to a) notice and b) accept an advance I'm not sure it would even get past his focus to register at all. (You have to admit, Psiren had all the subtlty of a sledgehammer.) Roy gets past his focus, all right, but Ed's awareness of him is very adversarial--which gets us to the other thing. Ed is more than capable of taking care of himself. You notice he gets over his flusterment with Psiren and carries through his chosen response without getting sidetracked again.
On to Roy. This is actually the part I consider most problematic--what reason Roy would have to be sexually attracted to a 15 year old that he's known since the kid was 12. Of course, Ed's pure jaw-dropping gorgeousness is a darn good place to start, but would that overcome Roy's presumed awareness that Ed is rather emotionally innocent about romance and sexuality? I don't think so; I don't think Roy is the kind to take advantage of Ed's inexperience (which a manipulator like him probably could), and I certainly don't think Roy would endanger their working relationship by making a serious pass unless he had some solid indication that Ed would welcome it and be able to keep working with Roy effectively. He's generally too practical.
That is why I tend to write Ed older in my Roy/Ed fics.
Is this how I feel about real life liasons with this kind of age gap? Why yes, in fact, it is. It depends on the personalities. Most teenagers do not, fortunately for them, have the life-experience that would catch them up to someone twice their age. That is what makes most cases of sexual relationships with those age figures fine examples of predation.
I would point out that in most cases, it's up to the partner with greater experience to realize that fact.
I mean, when I was 19 and had an unspeakable crush on a really cool professor (almost exactly twice my age at the time), I would have been perfectly happy to go to bed with him given the slightest opportunity. He was the one who had to be responsible and restrained and think about whether it would be a good idea to sleep with a student who was a) still pretty damn innocent and b) rather messed up into the bargain. Thank goodness he did, too, because it would have been a bad idea.
Hmmm. I hadn't thought about it before, but it's quite possible that part of my liking for Roy stems from his similarity to that professor. *collapses laughing* What a thought!
Eh, while we're on the subject, this is similar to why I'm happy to write present-time Roy/Hughes, provided Gracia knows about it. In the absence of any evidence to the contrary I like to think Gracia has enough faith in Hughes' obvious deep and abiding love for her to not worry about him occasionally sleeping with his best friend, that Hughes loves his wife far too much for her to be anything but first in his heart, and that Roy would be fine with all this.
Hey, I said I like to pick the non-depressing options to write about.
