Mu Lowdown article by Jim Burton.

If you have been anything like tuned in to the Twitter/Fandom "age-gap discourse" or "Epstein saga" on social media during the last 10 years, you might have become familiar with the 17 years and 364 days meme. A few examples will follow for those less familiar, or maybe just sick fucks looking to relive it for some reason...

Often, when it reaches the level of "reasoned" argument, degeneracy-warriors and age-gap-progressives will claim the example of a person on the eve of their 18th birthday becoming a "victim" in the eyes of the law, is a hypothetical snapshot completely disconnected from reality. They claim to see it as a straw-man, or whataboutism used dishonestly by those with an untoward motive.

But an analysis of news articles from 2025 reveals this isn't necessarily true. Not only are adolescent boys the most commonly prosecuted segment of society for child sex crimes, but there are many examples of purported 17-year-old statutory rape victims of adults in the American media. In fact, during a single 9-day period in 2025, three such examples came to our attention at Mu. Featuring only female "perpetrators", these were obviously just the ones deemed fit for publishing in the media:

• Court TV: 14 Years in prison for relationship with 17 year old student.
• ABC4: Voluntary intercourse with her boyfriend’s younger brother, 17.
• New York Post: Voluntary sexual relationship between Teacher and boy, now 17.

US Sheriffs are now so bold as to speak of "seventeen-year-old children", even when the children aren't real, and it's them doing the grooming!

So, not only does the meme live real, but our moral standards towards those caught in the crossfire are grossly inconsistent; often led by arbitrary laws that set out how they "ought" to be treated. We fail to consider the relationships on their merits, and also fail to appreciate that how both participants are treated by the legal system today, will often have lifelong implications for the future.

For example, in a highly-publicized 2025 case involving two teenage girls, much was made of Army Vet Cory Kapahulehua's openly supportive online relationship with a 17-year-old prior to his conviction and sentencing to 187 years in prison earlier this year. It was, after all part of what he was vilified online, and then ultimately sentenced for.

Yet, in the UK, where 17-year-old Mila Kuchma's relationship with a man almost in his 30s was legal, even a major tabloid newspaper shared a story in which online age-gap-warriors were described as nasty trolls, targeting a loving couple. "Get over it! It's legal and they had babies!" is clearly implied in the tone of this story.

So there we have it - in short, the 17 & 364 meme is for all intents and purposes, rooted in reality. Don't under any circumstances be lied to about it.

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