People’s brains have completely been broken by trying to fit reality to the small and ridiculously inadequate concept of consent:
Consent matters at every age. Children aren’t toys or possessions, and even newborns deserve bodily autonomy and respect. No religious institution should put tradition above a person’s right to say no.
Even within such a short tweet, there is a glaring contradiction. Newborns can’t say anything. The concept of bodily autonomy is the exact opposite of what a newborn feels. The understanding that a child’s body is separate from her mother’s does not happen at birth. It arrives gradually and takes quite a bit of time.
Outside of the newborn stage, parents have two crucial roles:
1. To keep the child alive
2. To socialize her into the culture
Both rules are impossible to fulfill if you predicate them on consent. Mommy can’t play right now because she has to work, do chores, and finish the phone conversation. You have to use the potty, flush after yourself, brush teeth, wash hands, get dressed, pick up your toys, learn to read, and so on. You can’t beat your brother over the head with a toy truck. You can’t throw food on the floor. You have to say please and thank you.
Civilization is a system of limitations on our free will. It’s not simply unnatural. It is actively anti-nature. Nature means relieving ourselves in the middle of the street whenever fancy strikes. Newborns exist in a natural state from which parenting endeavors to extract them for their own good. This process is not necessarily deeply enjoyable for everybody involved. And that is fine. The road to happiness in life doesn’t go through following your every whim. You aren’t going to be happy until you learn to derive joy from doing what you must.
The understanding of reality that is based first and foremost on consent is impoverished and strangely sexualized.
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