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As prom comes around the corner, what's on your mind? The fear that your daughter might get her heart broken if no one asks her to the dance? The fear that your daughter might get too many proposals for the dance? The fear that she's going to want the limo, the dress, and the whole nine? Or the fear that somewhere in her school, there's a creeper right now adding her to a list that rates her on her "sexual experience level" so the guys can figure out if she's worth dating?
Oh, teenagers. Such morons. Such misogynists. And the trouble is, it's hard to tell if they even realize how disgusting they are. But at a school in Boston, at least one teenager is about to find out just what happens when you distribute a list of the names, ages, body types, and sexual experience level of 22 classmates yet to be asked to the junior prom.
Ipswich School officials have asked police to subpoena the Internet service provider to reveal the origination of the email sent to hundreds of students, and they'll be weighing out what punishment will go into effect under the school's bullying policy. That could mean a simple detention or an expulsion.
But first the school may want to lead the entire student body in a little thing called "sexual harassment training." See, rating a girl's worth on her "sexual experience" isn't just cruel to the girl in question. It makes it obvious how the perpetrator of the crime -- and anyone who forwarded the email -- looks at females. Not as people but as sex objects.
It's a hard distinction for even some grown-ups to make. If a girl wants to look sexy, then why is it wrong to rate her "sex appeal"?
But here's the problem. It's fine to look sexy. To want to be perceived as sexy. But that's only a portion of who someone is. When someone forgets that -- male or female -- they take the tumble into the dark area that allows for rape and other forms of subjugation. If these girls are worth a prom proposal only based on their sexual prowess, that means the asker is thinking he has some claim to her sexuality.
A list like this suddenly makes all those "OMG, my daughter might get raped on prom night" fears that you hear talked about sound ... well, real. Think Biff attacking Marty's mom in the parking lot in Back to the Future only much, much worse. I hate to think like that, because there are plenty of very nice young men who will be coming around to date my (eventually be a teenager) daughter. I don't want to be sexist myself in treating all teenage boys like they've got "one thing on their mind" as you'll hear from the old biddies. But stories like this make it awfully scary to be raising a daughter.
Do you think this is representative of the way a lot of teenage boys think or just one depraved individual?
Image via ghindo/Flickr
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
