According to the state of Ohio, the answer is now apparently yes. Remember my post about sex offenders and Oprah? I discussed some of the local and state laws where I live in regards to registered sex offenders. Now comes the case of a 15-year-old girl in Licking Valley, Ohio, which is in a county adjacent to my own, and is garnering national attention. I first read about the story on Salon's women's issues blog Broadsheet (get it?), and they heard about the story from ABC.
What happened, apparently, is that the girl took naked pictures of herself and sent them to a bunch of people at her high school. Stupid, certainly. Probably deserving of some sort of punishment from some authority, yes. But does it make the girl a sex offender? Ohio law seems to says it does. The girl has been charged with "illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material" and "possession of criminal tools." (i.e. her cell phone) If she is convicted, she could be kept in juvenile detention until she's 21 and be forced to register as a sex offender (because she was caught distributing child pornography) for the next 20 years. Not only that, but charges may also be filed against the people she sent the photos to, since they were in possession of child pornography... a fifth-degree felony in Ohio. If the law is followed, they may all be forced to register as a sex offender for the next ten years, simply for, essentially, receiving a text message from one of their classmates.
This is not the first time kids sending sexy pictures to each other has made front page news around here. The Columbus Dispatch has regularly featured stories about local schools having trouble controlling the spread of sexually explicit material, usually taken by students of themselves, over cell phones. This is a culture where sexual images are readily available to anyone with an internet connection, but at the same time the age of consent is 18, by which time most teens have been dating for years. This is the first time I've heard of this level of charges being filed, however.
It's debateable when teenagers are truly able to make decisions regarding their own bodies for themselves in an adult manner, and of course it will vary from person to person. Obviously in this case the girl exercised extremely bad judgment, and is probably not ready for any of that. My position is that there's only so much control parents and schools have, in the end, and if the goal is to genuinely help the kids instead of simply control them, then the best solution is widespread sex education and availability of contraceptives. But that is only my opinion.
What this case does make clear is that our laws on this subject haven't kept up with changes in technology and resultant changes in our culture. To say that our culture is more sexualized may or may not be true (sure, girls didn't send naked pics over their phone in Little House on the Prairie days, but they did marry Almanzo from the next town over at age 16), but it is certainly true that more and more parts of ourselves are becoming public, and members of the digital generation need time to learn where to draw that line just as they need time to learn everything else. If my work in the state legislature has taught me anything, it's that when you make an arbitrary rule, it will have consequences you did not foresee... and usually not good ones.
Showing posts with label Oprah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oprah. Show all posts
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
MemeWatch: Oprah vs. the multitudinous male genitalia
You know something’s become an internet sensation when techno remixes of it start appearing on YouTube. This past week, Oprah Winfrey, talk show host/media mogul/philanthropist/actress/messiah, became the subject of the latest big internet meme, perhaps most popularly titled “Oprah vs. the 9000 Penises.” On an episode of her incredibly popular talk show, Winfrey had come once again to the subject of sexual predators. She announced that she had become aware of a sort of secret society of said predators, and that one of them had sent her a letter stating “We have 9000 penises, and all of them are raping your children.” These words coming out of the mouth of “the world’s most influential woman” were rated hilarious enough to skyrocket up to the top of Digg, and recordings of the segment became, for a few minutes anyway, among the most sought after videos on YouTube. So… where did this one come from?
Winfrey has dedicated a good portion of her imposing influence to the fight against sexual predators. This is completely understandable. She has stated that she was sexually molested herself as a child. When she was 14, she became pregnant, though the baby died shortly after its birth. Unlike almost all victims of such abuse, she is now in a position where she can hope to make a positive difference. She has a section of her website dedicated to tracking down fugitive sex offenders, and at least two arrests have been directly credited to her site. Winfrey’s ability to overcome her history of abuse can be credited as part of her border-crossing appeal… the show is apparently now the number one program in, of all places, Saudi Arabia.
This personal battle has even tinged her takes on other subjects. Winfrey has long been a prominent supporter of gay rights. In the 1990s, she produced an episode of her show on the subject of gay marriage. When an audience member stood up to say that she was tired of homosexuals publicly flaunting their sex lives, Oprah (as she is nearly always simply known) replied “You know what I’m tired of? Heterosexual males raping and sodomizing young girls. That’s what I’m tired of!”
On the other hand, the threat of sexual predation on American children is almost certainly blown way out of proportion, and Winfrey is at least partially responsible for this. The Wikipedia page for “Mass Hysteria” even cites the modern attitude towards such criminals as a possible example. It is probably in reality more comparable to the medieval trend of witch hunts. This is the only crime (except for suspicion of terrorism, but that’s another post) where all those convicted must register their whereabouts with the authorities for the rest of their lives. Legislators have of course continued to pass bills on this subject, which are applied not just to new offenders but to those already registered. Several court cases are currently underway to determine whether these laws count as ex post facto (and are thus illegal). (My take is that they obviously are. The real question in these cases is whether we care.)
Many states enact even more stringent laws. In the Columbus area, where I live, some of the more affluent communities have passed regulations keeping sex offenders from entering into zones within one mile of schools, or playgrounds, or swimming pools… these suburbs, not being that big area-wise, have basically barred those who committed this crime in the past from legally entering their city limits. It’s perhaps worth pointing out that similar laws are not even in effect for convicted murderers.
My take on Winfrey is that she’s talented, shrewd, and well-meaning, but not as discerning (or, strangely, savvy enough in the sort of media studies I spent a lot of time on in college) as is necessary for someone in her position. A prime past example of this is her mid-nineties spat with the Texas beef industry when she declared that she was no longer eating hamburgers due to fears of mad cow disease. She then proceeded to take her show down to Texas and do an expose on the subject. A single cow testing positive for the disease was eventually found in the state… about a decade later. She was sued for defamation by the industry, who claimed she cost them millions of dollars. More recently she has taken to evangelizing on her show for a self-help program called “The Secret,” which takes the “power of positive thinking” and makes the next bizarre metaphysical step.
In this case, the concept of some sort of secret organization of sexual predators seems ridiculous on its face, and not just because we’re presented with this respected woman saying “9000 penises.” These are, speaking in general terms, solitary, depraved creatures, acting on urges that even they often seem to know are morally wrong. How would something like this even get started? What would be the purpose of it? It just fails to make sense to me, and in my opinion it should have made sense to Oprah before she blurted it bluntly out in front of millions of viewers.
So, was that way too much analysis for an internet meme about penises? Whaddaya think?
Winfrey has dedicated a good portion of her imposing influence to the fight against sexual predators. This is completely understandable. She has stated that she was sexually molested herself as a child. When she was 14, she became pregnant, though the baby died shortly after its birth. Unlike almost all victims of such abuse, she is now in a position where she can hope to make a positive difference. She has a section of her website dedicated to tracking down fugitive sex offenders, and at least two arrests have been directly credited to her site. Winfrey’s ability to overcome her history of abuse can be credited as part of her border-crossing appeal… the show is apparently now the number one program in, of all places, Saudi Arabia.
This personal battle has even tinged her takes on other subjects. Winfrey has long been a prominent supporter of gay rights. In the 1990s, she produced an episode of her show on the subject of gay marriage. When an audience member stood up to say that she was tired of homosexuals publicly flaunting their sex lives, Oprah (as she is nearly always simply known) replied “You know what I’m tired of? Heterosexual males raping and sodomizing young girls. That’s what I’m tired of!”
On the other hand, the threat of sexual predation on American children is almost certainly blown way out of proportion, and Winfrey is at least partially responsible for this. The Wikipedia page for “Mass Hysteria” even cites the modern attitude towards such criminals as a possible example. It is probably in reality more comparable to the medieval trend of witch hunts. This is the only crime (except for suspicion of terrorism, but that’s another post) where all those convicted must register their whereabouts with the authorities for the rest of their lives. Legislators have of course continued to pass bills on this subject, which are applied not just to new offenders but to those already registered. Several court cases are currently underway to determine whether these laws count as ex post facto (and are thus illegal). (My take is that they obviously are. The real question in these cases is whether we care.)
Many states enact even more stringent laws. In the Columbus area, where I live, some of the more affluent communities have passed regulations keeping sex offenders from entering into zones within one mile of schools, or playgrounds, or swimming pools… these suburbs, not being that big area-wise, have basically barred those who committed this crime in the past from legally entering their city limits. It’s perhaps worth pointing out that similar laws are not even in effect for convicted murderers.
My take on Winfrey is that she’s talented, shrewd, and well-meaning, but not as discerning (or, strangely, savvy enough in the sort of media studies I spent a lot of time on in college) as is necessary for someone in her position. A prime past example of this is her mid-nineties spat with the Texas beef industry when she declared that she was no longer eating hamburgers due to fears of mad cow disease. She then proceeded to take her show down to Texas and do an expose on the subject. A single cow testing positive for the disease was eventually found in the state… about a decade later. She was sued for defamation by the industry, who claimed she cost them millions of dollars. More recently she has taken to evangelizing on her show for a self-help program called “The Secret,” which takes the “power of positive thinking” and makes the next bizarre metaphysical step.
In this case, the concept of some sort of secret organization of sexual predators seems ridiculous on its face, and not just because we’re presented with this respected woman saying “9000 penises.” These are, speaking in general terms, solitary, depraved creatures, acting on urges that even they often seem to know are morally wrong. How would something like this even get started? What would be the purpose of it? It just fails to make sense to me, and in my opinion it should have made sense to Oprah before she blurted it bluntly out in front of millions of viewers.
So, was that way too much analysis for an internet meme about penises? Whaddaya think?
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