Pedophiles

Cell Phones Linked to Child Molestation

When I have kids, they're not getting a cell phone. They're getting a gigantic Korean War style two-way radio. Text messages annoy me to the nth degree as it is; you truly have no idea how happy it makes me to have a good, solid excuse to limit children I'm babysitting from sending text messages.

On the subject of pedophiles, I always find myself outraged when I learn of an older man preying on a female minor. But when I learn of the opposite happening--say, a 25 year old woman soliciting sex from a 14 year old boy--I don't really have the same, gut reaction.

I don't believe in innate evil, which probably plays a big part in this discrepancy. When a man takes advantage of a young girl, there is a significant amount of physical trauma involved. Penetrating a girl that young--especially since we live in a society where the girl knows damn well that something bad is happening--would be exceedingly painful to the girl, and would probably cause bleeding. There is a huge risk for pregnancy, which in turn leads to all those moral issues about abortion, and all the risks associated with teen pregnancy. When a man does this to a girl, it complicates her life, causes her pain, and then the girl has this dark secret burdening her -- she'd be afraid to tell anyone, because part of her would believe she was at fault. When someone finally finds out, there's a huge hullabaloo, reporters, angry parents, and blog posts. Blog posts are always the worst. Serious.

But I just can't feel the same outrage when it happens to a boy. When I was 14, I spent most of my time hoping my PE teacher would drag me into a dark closet and have her way with me. I can't imagine other boys that age are wired much differently. I know that wanting it doesn't make it right. But somehow, because of the child's gender, I feel like it is less of a crime. (Unless the child is sodomized. Then we're right back to outrage.)

It's a strange hypocrisy I harbor.