The problem, he said, is that child porn laws never contemplated "children sharing images of themselves," and youthful sexters have little concept of their actions as a crime. "You can literally see the shock on their faces," McCarthy said.America is certain of one thing and one thing only regarding adolescents: they do not own themselves; they do not possess independent moral agency; their sexuality is by definition victimhood, even when practiced volitionally; consensual sex and forced prostitution in the under-18 population are essentially inextricable.
-Reported in WaPo
The business model of pimping is remarkably similar whether in Atlanta or Calcutta: take vulnerable, disposable girls whom nobody cares about, use a mix of “friendship,” humiliation, beatings, narcotics and threats to break the girls and induce 100 percent compliance, and then rent out their body parts.
-Nicholas Kristof
“Just because you’re wearing high-heeled sexy shoes doesn’t mean you should have a baby,” said Neil Cole.
I believe we can all rally around this sentiment.
Cole is the head of Iconix, a company that makes the Candie’s line of teen fashions. A couple of years ago, under fire from critics who accused him of dressing high schoolers like tarts, he established the Candie’s Foundation, which fights teen pregnancy. And there he was on Wednesday introducing the foundation’s new teen ambassador, Bristol Palin.
Palin is not in any way to be confused with the new Candie’s brand spokesperson, Britney Spears. Bristol is the one endorsing abstinence; Britney is the one promoting “hot bottoms.”
-Gail Collins
I ask because teenage sexuality is one of the leading causes of illegitimacy, which believe it or not is more pandemic than the swine flu and more damaging to the institutions of family and marriage than any same-gender commitment ceremony in California or Iowa.
-David Waters
The solution to so-called underage prostitution is to legalize prostitution, to allow people to exchange money for sex, and, if necessary, to subject that profession to the same child labor rules that we enforce in other professions at far lesser expense and to far greater effect, principally because as far as laws go, child labor laws are rational and enjoy such broad consensus that they effectively enforce themselves . . . unless I am unaware of some ongoing scourge in the newsies industry. The solution to "sexting," or more particularly to the problematic application of draconian pornography censorship to teenagers who send each other titty pics or parents who take cute pictures of babies' bums is to end entirely the prohibition on pornography, including so-called "child pornography," which criminalizes a product rather than the damaging acts that may go into its production. Kidnapping, rape, molestation, harassment, etc.--the statutory bases for prosecuting adults who actually abuse children to produce exploitative sexual video and photography exist, but by instead availing ourselves of our preposterous prohibition on a whole vast, subjective category of media images, thoughts, and expressions, we end up with the priggish absurdity of prosecutors threatening jail and lifelong repercussions to teens for sharing nudie shots.
It's also worth noting that although they're not usually aware of its illegality, the kids sharing these pictures do so precisely because our culture persists in making mere nudity thoroughly titillating. But the old aphorism is instructive: familiarity breeds contempt. Not that I wish to see us grow contemptuous of each others' naked bodies, but a society able to cure itself of the view that nakedness is inherently prurient is one in which exhibitionism escapes censure while declining in currency.
As for pregnancy, we live in a miraculous technological age in a fantastically wealthy society in which we are able to exert nearly full, conscious control of human reproduction, usually with the most minimally invasive measures, and despite the caviling of that commune of queasy fetishists tolerated with mild amusement by the real Romans (as are the feral cats in the Forum), the solution to "the crisis of illegitimacy" is simply to allow women not to get pregnant.
15 comments:
You make everything a fucking
travesty! What about that shit about Vietnam! What the fuck does Vietnam have to
do with anything! What the fuck
were you talking about?!
Have you seen my ...weiner?
Mr. Fun, have you checked into one of those timers that reminds you when to take your medicine?
this is my medicine, hun.
That's some bad insurance you got there.
You didn't man on dog sex. Christ, did Rick Santorum teach us nothing?
if it expedites the process of us prurient prudes & voyeurs getting to see all that sexting, i say prosecute all of 'em. hmmm...i see a reality show on nbc where we all get to watch hot young thangs entrapped into...you know. maybe they should all wind up on the "child predator" database, for predating themselves?
fucking nazis. nothing changes.
The preferences of adults are different from those of their children, and that's we we call it paternalism. Allowing people not to get pregnant would be more workable if not getting pregnant were a high priority. We're the descendants of people that spread their genes, not monks & nuns. Nadya Suleman will inherit the earth (if the Amish and Hasidics don't beat her to it).
TGGP, what in god's holy name are you blathering about?
no shit, drip.
I still have no idea what any of the idiots Monsieur quoted are talking about. what's all that shit about Vietnam? what the fuck?
"A couple of years ago, under fire from critics who accused him of dressing high schoolers like tarts, he established the Candie’s Foundation, which fights teen pregnancy. And there he was on Wednesday introducing the foundation’s new teen ambassador, Bristol Palin.
Palin is not in any way to be confused with the new Candie’s brand spokesperson, Britney Spears. Bristol is the one endorsing abstinence; Britney is the one promoting 'hot bottoms.'"
Good God. Is it not enough that irony is dead? Must we publicly abuse its sad, mutilated, decomposing corpse in this hideous fashion? Really, this crosses the line from merely distasteful into downright perverse.
(Oh, and am I the only one who finds it amusing that their abstinence promoter's first name has a rather unfortunate meaning in Cockney Rhyming Slang? You couldn't make it up.)
Dude, there are times I'd almost wish kids on you. I mean, at one end of the experience you have a completely dependent little turd machine, and at the other, some autonomous moral agent. The transition from one to the other is a continuum that's not particularly easy to navigate (not that you said it's easy), and puberty (your use of "adolescent") isn't always the clear line either. But whatever. I figure when they can make their case, that'll be the time when their case is made.
I can't disagree that American attitudes toward children are warped by the general Puritanism. I might have added an overemphasis on (and economic incentive for) the nuclear family model as part of it too.
Also, in the case you have here, I think the laws were less retarded when camera equipment was somewhat less ubiquitous.
TGGP, what in god's holy name are you blathering about?IOZ points out that in our modern age of marvels we have much more control over reproduction than in the past. That is true. It is also the case that out-of-wedlock births are well above what they were before Roe v Wade (let alone Griswold v Connecticut). To those of us who are not single mothers it would seem obvious that the technical capacity to engage in family planning should be all that is necessary to prevent little "accidents". But humanity is a diverse bunch with differing motivations (both in direction and intensity). We ourselves as mature adults would consider idiotic much of what we thought cool or at least alright when young. What pundits are expressing is dismay that the young are not adhering to the norms set out for them by the upper-middle class. This norm is at least in theory not in conflict with a more widespread norm that babies are wonderful (in the extreme case, even ones with Downs). As detailed in books like Promises I Can Keep, many single-mothers at least pay lip service to the upper middle class norm of settling down with a life-partner at a respectable age complete with white picket-fences, but it is seen as far removed from them while the norm of motherhood is more immediate and attainable. A belief about ways to reduce illegitimacy (assuming that's your bag) which doesn't take into account such norms will not pay rent.
Also, there is no god, silly.
You can pretty much blame the persistence of our species on teenage sexuality as well.
Yes, the antinatalists have their work cut out for them.
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