(aka Twerking and Shirking)
A judge in Montana sentenced 49 year old high school teacher Stacey
Rambold for the rape of his 14 year old student. You can read the entire story here. Though sentencing the rapist to 15 years, the
judge suspended all but 30 days, meaning that this man will do 30 days in jail for
having sex with a 14 year old girl. The
judge explained that the teen girl was "older than her chronological
age" and "as much in control of the situation" as the male
teacher.
Last week at the VMA awards, Miley Cyrus shocked everyone with her
hypersexualized performance. The entire
nation began clucking like chickens, wondering how this could happen to Hannah
Montana.
You might wonder how Miley Cyrus’ performance on a VMA stage could be
related to a sentencing case in Montana.
I’m not sure they are, but bear with me.
The case in Montana may seem to be isolated to a remote
jurisdiction. It is not. I recently had a statutory rape case in which
the defense attorney (yeah, yeah…doing her job) repeatedly referred to the 12
year old victim as a “mature minor”. Even
in his apology/explanation, Montana judge G. Todd Baugh reiterated that the
victim really was “older than her age” when it came to sexual matters.
How did we get here? How is it
that the hyper-sexualization of a child has moved from disaster to defense?
The answer in part is culture.
Using the terms loosely, life often imitates art. Our children are bombarded with programming
like the VMA awards. It’s not just MTV,
though they aim products like “16 and Pregnant” and “Teen Mom” squarely at our
young people. Statutory Rape is now
commercial rather than criminal.
Lifetime has a series featuring a single mom who turns to escorting
(read prostitution), Victoria’s Secret and Viagra advertise during
primetime. We adults then sit casually
back and wonder how our fourteen year olds became so sexually mature. How did they learn to talk like that? Where did they learn THAT? I also wonder if the presentation of children
in this way doesn’t embolden perverts like Mr. Rambold by allowing them to feel
that their desires just really aren’t that out of line.
Against that backdrop, is it any wonder that our young people fall victim
to predators telling them that sexual behavior is “normal” for kids their
age. “What is age anyway?” they say,
knowing it to be the siren song of every teen convinced of their own maturity. Make no mistake, the Stacey Rambold’s are out
there in our communities.
Statutory rape laws are there for a reason. There are a lot of “adult” activities that
children could do, but aren’t allowed
because they don’t yet possess the cognitive or social ability to deal with the
consequences. They can’t drive. They can’t vote. They can’t drink alcohol. They aren’t supposed to see R rated movies
alone. They also can’t consent to
sex. Not because they aren’t equipped,
but because they can’t yet process the import of that decision.
Mr. Rambold’s victim couldn’t. This
“mature minor” tragically chose to take her own life before the case came to
trial.
Our job as adults should be more than picking up the pieces. As adult consumers, we should expect more of
the adult producers, agents, actors and marketers when it comes to our young
people. Culture has consequences. Miley Cyrus (Hannah) isn’t responsible for
what happened in Montana…but the culture that gave us primetime twerking might
also have contributed to judicial shirking.
