Totally Eighteen: Difference between revisions
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In some cases, but far from always, this trope comes across as a [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]] of one kind or another. The trope is sometimes connected to tropes such as [[Jail Bait]], [[Legal Jailbait]] and [[The Jailbait Wait]] for the character, or tropes such as [[Moral Guardians]] and [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]] for the work itself.
Note that in many countries and states, the age of consent for ''having'' sex is fifteen or sixteen, while the age when it becomes legal to be ''portrayed'' as having sex is eighteen. Regardless of laws, many individuals draw a very sharp moral line at eighteen for all things sexual. Also note that while often directly or indirectly sexualized, the trope does not need to have any sexual context or subtext - the driving plot point can also be issues such as the right to vote or to get your driver's license.
Compare [[Older Than They Look]] and [[Really Seven Hundred Years Old]] as well as [[Younger Than They Look]] and [[Really Seventeen Years Old]]. For sexual situations [[Suspiciously Vague Age]] is another method writers might try to get around the no one under eighteen having sex thing.
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* Passionately averted in ''[[Lucifer (comics)|Lucifer]]''
* In one issue of ''[http://matsjonssonbloggen.blogspot.com/ Mats Jonsson]'', the protagonist is having a relationship with a girl who pretends to be 21. When it's revealed that she's studying at high school rather than the university, she changes it to nineteen. When she later confesses that she's actually sixteen and begs for forgiveness for her dishonesty, he breaks all contact with her and spends the rest of the episode angsting over having been with someone so young. The story takes place in Sweden, where the age of consent is fifteen—so in that context his angst is purely emotional, without any [[Jail Bait]] issues.
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* In ''[[Brain Donors]]'', at one point the trio is awakened suddenly, and the first thing out of Roland T. Flakfizer's mouth is "She looked eighteen, officer, I swear!"
* This is part of the reason why R. P. MacMurphy in ''[[One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest]]'' is locked in a mental institution
* ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]'', of all places. When Mary tells George she is 18, the implications weigh heavily on him.
{{quote|'''George:''' ''Eighteen!'' Why, it was only last year you were seventeen.}}
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** Played straight later in the film, when the cops bust a party Sean is throwing. One of the girls at the party pretends she's 19, but when pressed, admits she's really 17.
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* In the ''[[Slave World]]'' kingdom of England, you have to be at least eighteen before you can become a slave or own a slave. The first part is merely mentioned (especially in connection with those few slaves who are exactly eighteen — most are significantly older). Non-noble characters younger than eighteen simply doesn't exist in the story. The rule against underage slave-owners eventually does becomes a plot point, however.
** A prelude to this is given in the second book: some teenage nobles are frustrated and annoyed over not being allowed to own slaves yet, and a few sixteen-year-old nobles fondle the protagonist while she happens to be [[Bound and Gagged|helpless]]. Around the same time a young adult noblewoman is scolded for being immature and reckless, not taking proper care of her slaves.
In the last few books, a young prince join the cast as the [[Love Interest]] of an enslaved journalist. He is sixteen, she is in her thirties, but because of the social power dynamic he's the one with all the power. The queen eventually punishes him for covertly taking a slave before he's old enough... by sending him off to France... where sixteen-year-old nobles are allowed to own slaves... [[Unishment|And yes, he gets to bring the former journalist with him.]]
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* Discussed in ''[[Californication]]'' when Hank Moody discovers the attractive socialite that seduced him at a book store (while reading his book no less) is {{spoiler|actually 16... and the daughter of his ex-girlfriend's current partner.}} The mistake is a major plot point for the rest of the series, as the girl in question keeps the threat of blackmail pointed at Hank.
** Of course, in real life a girl who lied about her age and seduced him would not have much legal ground to stand on. A point which is raised when {{spoiler|the
* ''[[Law & Order: Special Victims Unit]]'' sometimes treats the fact that a certain character is over 18 as an annoying technicality that makes it harder to arrest people for having sex with them.
** In one episode, the sex is consensual acts between two adults who love each other and are both fully mature in every mental, emotional and legal way. It's just that she happen to have a medical condition that make her [[Older Than They Look|look like she's ten]]. The detectives consider her chronological, mental and emotional maturity to be an annoying technicality, one that they try to find ways around so they'll be able to lock up her current lover and any lover she may get in the future. Instead of taking the actual person into account, they put all their focus on how grossed out they personally was over imagining anyone being turned on by her. So they basically wanted to follow this adult woman around for the rest of her life to harass her and anyone she might fall in love with, simply because of her looks.
** In another episode, a girl is raped at gunpoint. She looks very young, and throughout the episode she is is consistently portrayed as a teenager who is not yet fully adult — neither intellectually nor emotionally. This is not held against her; instead, it simply underscores how vulnerable she is. However, she happens to be 19, so the prosecution must prove that she didn't consent. And of course, the defense has [[Blatant Lies]] about the gun as one of their top priorities.
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* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', the spring festival Noble Garden includes an achievement where you are supposed to put bunny ears on one female character of each race, and it has to be a character that is at least level 18.
** Some complaints about this achievement made it into the newspapers -
* The game ''[http://www.pown.it/4498 Bear Gunner]'' is technically about hunting bears. However, the protagonist is a 8-year-old girl armed with a machine gun, and the bears she's gunning down are all the
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* ''[[Fate/stay night]]'' has a splash page at the beginning noting that all characters in sex scenes are of legal age. Due to half those characters being in high school, there is some debate over whether this is [[Blatant Lies]] or just taking advantage of Japan's slightly more complicated age of consent laws.
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* On ''[[Literotica]]'', it's considered wise policy to specify that any characters engaging in sex are over 18.
* This is mocked by Zack Parson of ''[[Something Awful]]'' when he did his Hentai game reviews, some of those games claiming someone who in his eyes is obviously a minor is in fact 18.
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* Those who have very recently turned eighteen (or their country, state, or province's age of majority) will often be very eager to point it out as well as take advantage of the new privileges and rights they have. It's justified because since their becoming of the age of majority, people around them will most likely see them as "just a kid" and they therefore have to do some work to actually remake their images into those of adults.
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