Why was it a big deal? That sort of age gap was fairly common when I was at school and not looked upon as any real issue. My wife, just before I met her, was in exactly that relationship and got a big fat “meh” from all concerned.
Maybe because a physical relationship would have been statutory rape?
I graduated from HS in 1989, and that sort of age gap wasn’t common at all among my cohort. A 16-year-old dating someone 18 or older definitely would have been a “thing,” sex or not. It was even kind of a big deal for a HS senior to be dating a college freshman.
I had three boys and a girl. The girl is the second child. I taught her how to defend herself so she wouldn’t have to rely on anyone else to fight her battles. When she got married for the first time, I went to talk to her future husband. He asked me if this was going to be the “If you ever hurt my daughter. . .” talk. I told him no, she can take care of herself, and if he valued his balls staying where they were, he’d be well warned not to do anything stupid.
I graduated from HS in the 70’s and a 16 year old and a 19 year old were just two teenagers dating. I was dating an 18/19 year old for a few months when I was 16. He had a car. I was thrilled.
He was an older senior with a full university scholarship waiting for him, she was a sophomore who said she was 16. Under 16 would be statutory rape and he’d be a sex offender, I just wanted him to understand that. He did but he wasn’t very happy about it.
Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. God, you can say sex. You can even type sex! What is a “physical relationship”, does it include holding hands? And whether 19+16 fucking constitutes statutory rape depends on the location’s statutes.
I will never forget being a high school sophomore in the 70’s. A really cool Vietnamese boat person refugee Senior named Twee. Oh man, she was outgoing and wonderful with really long hair. She had a little brother that was a freshman. This was in a Podunk northern calfornia white bread no crust kinda redneck town. Her little brother got bullied. Twee went up to the biggest football playing bully there was. Told him to lay off her little bro. Dickhead said something dickish in front of his buddies and laughed. Twee did a flying roundhouse kick, KO’d him and dang near broke his jaw. After he came to and the rest of the audience (me included) picked their jaws off the ground, simply said “pick on my brother and next time I’m going to *hurt *you.” Little bro was not bullied after that.
But she wasn’t under 16 was she? So as long as all the legal boxes are ticked I don’t see the big deal.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding here but are you saying you *stopped *him from seeing her? How? and ultimately…if she *was *16 what was the problem.
The problem, if you’re my brother? Being older, and more responsible in theory, and believing you should be able to fuck anyone, anytime without a hassle; knowing that her parents trust you not to do this, but going ahead and sneaking around having unprotected sex with their kid in their own home, not caring who knows about it, not having a clue what you’ll do if she got pregnant, not being arsed to consider her situation at all, and then whining about getting caught and the subsequent fallout like a complete little bitch.
I intervened by giving him the use of my house for a while, with conditions, until things calmed down.
Sometimes it’s not an older sister that is protective.
A friend has 5 kids: 3 girls, followed by the only boy, then another girl, who was never as cool headed as her siblings. Fearless, short fuzed, and once it’s lit, it’s best to just get away.
So my friend tells me one day that he’d been to his kid’s principal’s office that morning. His son is kind of timid, and an occasional target for bullies. On that day, one of these bullies picked on him during the bus ride to school. Little sister, 2 years younger, was also on the bus. Hearing that, I thought, ‘oh shit’.
My friend said he got to the school office to find his son looking miserable, his daughter still angry, and the other kid all scratched up. Daughter was angry because she’d been pulled off the bigger kid when she “wasn’t done with him”.
That doesn’t sound like protecting your brother from the girl.