Are you age appropriate?

Do you ever wonder what others think of you? On Channel 4, there's a show called "10 Years Younger" where the Great British Public is asked to judge the age of a washed out person. Invariably, it's almost 15 years older or more!

I think people get on in life because others assume their looks suggest they are of a certain age. If you are 45 then you have achieved certain things. If you happen to be 35 but look 45 you will chug along with the 45 year olds. This TV show demonstrates exactly that people assume things. As soon as the person is remodelled with new teeth/lips/nose etc all the friends and relatives start treating the person differently. I don't suppose human nature can take it any other way.

In the USA, a 29-year-old convicted sex offender has spent four months at a US school after successfully posing as a 12-year-old boy. The school was, and I kid you not, Imagine Charter School in Phoenix, Arizona. Imagine! Apparently he shaved his body hair, covered his stubble with make-up and took a new name. He blended well with the other pupils, many of whom were actually taller and bigger than him.

"He absolutely looked age-appropriate," school spokeswoman Rhonda Cagle told the New York Times newspaper. She was taken in. Wouldn't we all? The thing here is that those with mental problems, political axes to grind, thieves, and general trouble makers could have a field day. We need to find a way in which society can be normal but with adequate safeguards and not be a police state with all the problems that entails.

And, with regard to sex offenders, isn't it time someone or some people, finally got to grips with whether it is a mental or sexual or criminal problem or a mixture of two or all three. If it is just criminal then we don't seem to be doing very well. My hunch is that by linking the problem to sexual orientation, a new can of worms opens up. "Don't let's go there!" the professionals cry. Is it nurture or nature? "Mrs Jones, you've got a lovely baby boy! Oh, dear! Our genes diagnostic testing machine says he will be a paedophile! You need to see Dr......." Could we take that?

But don't the rest of us deserve a proper answer as to what causes these "urges"?

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