As a man whose fate is deeply, lovingly, tied to women's lives, I find myself emotionally affected by the suicide of several girls in the bloom of their teenage years.
Amanda Todd http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Amanda_Todd
Rehtaeh Parsons http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2013/04/09/ns-rehtaeh-parsons-suicide-rape.html
Audrie Pott http://abcnews.go.com/US/audrie-pot...red-belief-friends-sexually/story?id=18943024
What makes these girls think "my life is ruined" because sexy photos and bawdry rumors circulate about them in their schools and on the web?
A chorus of outraged voices now calls for harsh punishment for the boys involved in sexually assaulting these girls and then bullying them with photos and rumors.
Now I'm all in favor of spitroasting the guilty. But who is really guilty here? I know, when I was a teenage boy—with hormones raging 10 times worse than now—I didn't have the wisdom or insight of a garden slug.
What really made these girls kill themselves, I believe, is a pervasive sex-negative social ethos that shames these girls for having been involved in consensual or non-consensual teenage sex or publicly exposing certain parts of their anatomy.
This attitude of making a big deal out of sexual matters on the part of trusted adults totally makes these girls lose perspective and breaks their hearts—when all the ruckus surrounding these events would soon disappear into the mists of time, and they could have lived out their lives just like anyone else.
Parents and bystanders are calling for the heads of the teenage male "perpetrators" to roll. Is that really the solution?
Amanda Todd http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Amanda_Todd
Rehtaeh Parsons http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/story/2013/04/09/ns-rehtaeh-parsons-suicide-rape.html
Audrie Pott http://abcnews.go.com/US/audrie-pot...red-belief-friends-sexually/story?id=18943024
What makes these girls think "my life is ruined" because sexy photos and bawdry rumors circulate about them in their schools and on the web?
A chorus of outraged voices now calls for harsh punishment for the boys involved in sexually assaulting these girls and then bullying them with photos and rumors.
Now I'm all in favor of spitroasting the guilty. But who is really guilty here? I know, when I was a teenage boy—with hormones raging 10 times worse than now—I didn't have the wisdom or insight of a garden slug.
What really made these girls kill themselves, I believe, is a pervasive sex-negative social ethos that shames these girls for having been involved in consensual or non-consensual teenage sex or publicly exposing certain parts of their anatomy.
This attitude of making a big deal out of sexual matters on the part of trusted adults totally makes these girls lose perspective and breaks their hearts—when all the ruckus surrounding these events would soon disappear into the mists of time, and they could have lived out their lives just like anyone else.
Parents and bystanders are calling for the heads of the teenage male "perpetrators" to roll. Is that really the solution?