Sexual Double Standards (female input would be greatly appreciated)

[hmkpoker]

So I'm walking down a city street with my friend the other day. We're both early twenty somethings, it's mid afternoon and it's a very nice day (t-shirt/summer dress type weather) Three girls pass by in the opposite direction. They're very young (my guess would be 14-15), and, imho, incredibly cute. I do a double-take and get another look, then make a comment to my friend. His reaction is "dude, seriously, those girls are like 14! Don't you think that's kind of sick?"

I'm sorry, I don't see how being attracted to an early teenager should be considered sick. These girls were clearly all post-menstrual, which from an evolutionary perspective is the point in time when animals start doing their thing. And it's not like humans are a special case; human males have been knocking up fourteen year olds since our speciation. It was actually quite common during all but the last few centuries. And it makes perfect sense. Male bodies and female bodies experience puberty (the dawning of adulthood, which accompanies hormonal urges) at roughly the same age. I, personally, was pretty horny when I was that age, and I can't imagine how, saving an awful lot of social conditioning, the average teenage female wouldn't be either.

Yet somehow, there are a lot of double standards. If we heard that a male schoolteacher, let's say age 24 and reasonably good-looking, fornicated with a 14 year old girl, most of us would probably think that he was a criminal, had done something horrible and probably psychologically scarred her badly. Even I'd be inclined to intuit that...mainly because I have no idea what it's like to be a woman. However, when it happens the other way (like when Debra LaFave committed statutory rape), I think that about 9 out of 10 guys that I talked to thought that that kid was a lucky little bastard, and that she should be allowed to stay in school so she could introduce more guys into manhood. That doesn't make sense though; why is an older man with a younger girl necessarily an atrocity while an older woman with a younger man is niiiiice?

(I actually have some personal experience in this area. When I was 19, I was dating a 43 year old woman. I told my dad and his girlfriend about it. My dad thought it was awesome and told me to have fun, but his girlfriend freaked out about it. "How could you let this happen? What if a 43 year old man was going out with your daughter?" My dad said he'd quickly have that guy put behind bars, but also that there is a huge double standard here.)

So why is this double standard there? Is it biological somehow, or are nearly all girls just told from a young age that sex is such a horrible experience that it becomes traumatic when they're prepared for it? I don't understand why this standard exists.

CLIFF NOTES: given the congruity of sexual maturation rates between men and women, why is there a sexual double standard that holds sex with young (pubescent) females to be criminally traumatizing, yet sex with young (pubescent) males to be cool?

Mods: I posted this in OOT just because I can't think of any other forum that has any female posters that I know of, and I wanted to get a woman's input on the matter. If you feel it should be moved to a different forum, go ahead.