Sunday, May 14, 2006

Fair?

I, like many others, was made aware of this story in the last week and I must say, I am baffled by some points in the article.
In a nutshell, the story is that of an 11 year old girl becoming pregnant with the help of a 15 year old friend at a drunken party.
Details of the story suggests that this child has had a very poor upbringing. The fact that her mother would allow her daughter to become the focus of such media frenzy says a lot in itself. The girl is a regular drinker, and a chain smoker and it is pain stakingly obvious that she has no foundations in life. Her mother claims to be 'very proud' of her daughter and her imminent pregnancy, which is 'exciting' the expectant mother to be. The whole set up is quite disturbing. Something has gone sadly wrong in this family unit and, as an outsider who only knows the bare facts, my blame will have to fall mostly into the mother's lap. While most parents would shield both their child and themselves from exposure over a tender situation like this, this dozy mare is parading her daughter around like a celebrity and as if childhood pregnancy is a great achievement.
But the most startling behaviour is not the mother's neglect of parenting basics that would be obvious to a blind chipmunk. No, I was more confused by the treatment of the lad who got her up the duff in the first place. Yes, it was a stupid thing to do. But, this guy is being charged for statutory rape. Now, I urge you to correct me if I'm mistaken, but the term rape, I always thought, referred to non-consensual sex. This girl was clearly up for it and obviously has no regrets. both were drunk and it takes two to tango as the cliched proverb goes. And the fact that the girl is happy and excited at the prospect of motherhood shows that she can't be scarred by the events, instead suggesting quite the contrary. She is also granting the boy full rights to the child...this was not a rape. The main argument is that he is significantly older than her and yes, we are all aware that there is a law over sex with minors. But he is a minor as well. This judgement and subsequent punishment is yet to be justified in my eyes. If anyone can shed any light on reasoning surrounding this boy's rape charge, I'd be most interested to hear it!

No comments: