Apathy Sketchpad

Happy Sixteenth Birthday. You are now allowed to have sex*. Now, while this process would usually involve seeing a naked women (or men), photographs of them constitute pornography, and are illegal for another two years, unless the photograph has at least one nipple obscured (or, if it is a man, unless he is… let’s say unprepared), in which case legally it becomes art, and is fair game. Then you’re allowed to have a drink to celebrate your wedding, but I don’t know where you met this girl, since you can’t buy a drink at your local pub or club (or frequently get through the doors) for another two years. So you’re sober, and bored, but don’t worry, while the dangers of alcohol abuse are twenty four long months away, you are quite at liberty to buy a pack of cigarettes and smoke your way to cardiovascular failure on the way home. That’s okay, you are the sort of person who is ready to make that kind of big decision. But you can’t vote. You’re not “adult” enough to vote, or get into adult clubs, but you’re “adult” enough to pay adult price for every single thing there is. I suggest you look forward to your eighteenth, when things start making sense again.

*Until recently this would only apply to heterosexuals. Gay men would have to wait a while longer, and the lesbians were quite at liberty to do whatever they want, at whatever age they work out how.