>>23301838Historically speaking for a second, the modern fixation of ours that kids should be shielded from facts of life is actually a very new concept. While it seems culturally that no one really lead a crusade to make kids understand everything and lose innocence at five, it's just, writers and culture understood that childhood was a battle of retaining innocence in the face of life.
The fact is, most people did not live very long until only recently. Only a few hundred years ago, the average life expectancy was forties, fifties, sixties - anyone even near 50 or 60 was considered old. Also, lots of kids died before reaching maturity - most children would have lost a brother or sister before maturity. Kids were considered adults MUCH earlier, teenagers were considered part of peasant levies, and even boys were not an unusual sight on battlefields. Also, people married way earlier, and of course, procreated much earlier. And they knew what was up, boys AND girls.
Just a hundred plus years ago, even what we would consider older lolis and teenagers could be had in brothels, and there were even sometimes specialized brothel in London or so. It was just the times really.
I'm not arguing on whether one way is better or another, just some interesting historical dimensional analysis. It seems the longer we live, the longer we stretch out certain periods of our lives.
