Bart and Lisa Simpson Sex Ruled Child Porn

JeanneSager — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 13:24:00 GMT

Think you're just being funny when you make your kid's Dora doll do the nasty with GI Joe? Better be careful - an Australian man has been convicted of child porn possession for looking at pictures of cartoons Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson having sex.

A judge ruled that despite the Simpsons being both fictional and drawn, they could be considered to depict a person under Australian law. And since the Simpsons are all kids - albeit imaginary ones - well, you know where I'm heading with this. Alan John McEwan lost his appeal, and he's been forced to pay a $3,000 fine plus submit to a two-year good behavior bond.

This one really rattled me. I'm all for packing pedophiles away in prisons, but cartoon porn? Can that really be pedophilia? Let's face it, we all have that friend - you know, the one who never gets any and always talks about it (he might be a father . . .) - who likes to send the e-mails with the dirty jokes about Sesame Street characters. I vaguely remember one accompanied by crudely drawn pictures of Cookie Monster with giant blue balls - for a joke about, well, blue balls (see what I mean about not getting any?). It was far from stimulating - sexually or any other way.

But Cookie Monster, Elmo and the gang are famous for never growing up; does that make the people who drew up that forward to be something more than your garden variety perv? Are they pedophiles? How about going a step farther - let's look at every teenage boy who draws a dick on the characters in the Highlights magazine accidentally left in the high school library. Or the dad who takes his kid's Leapster alphabet toy and presses the letters "S" and "X" in rapid succession.

Or maybe they'll come and hit Babble - after all, both Cole and I posted mashups from the net last week of rap songs transposed over children's TV shows. I posted one of my personal favorites - Dora the Promiscuous Girl - no nakedness in sight, but if the genitals on fictional kids count as porn, what do you make of Dora and Timbaland?

It sounds like big brother's moving in on kid sister's toys.

Image: PopArt UK

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Does PSA Blame Parents for their Daughters Being Raped?

JeanneSager — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:29:00 GMT

The public service announcement warning parents not to buy their daughters alcohol because of the heightened risk for sexual abuse for drunk teens is a total of 30-seconds long. But the Queensland Government in Brisbane, Australia has been drawing harsh critiscm around the globe for putting the blame in the wrong place - the victim.

Opening with a girl's stricken face as she weeps and fights off an attacker in a dark alley, the commercial follows the girl's night in reverse. It backs out of the alley, away from the guy into a party of teens drinking, then back to the girl's house where Dad hands her a box of booze and waves bye bye. "Don't kid yourself," an ominous voice says, "buy your children alcohol and they could pay the price."

Feministing, Jezebel and dozens of others have taken up bashing the Aussies for the short, charging the ad makers with blaming girls for getting raped and their parents for putting them in that situation. "I think what is upsetting about this is that it perpetuates the belief that rape is a young woman's fault and that if parents buy their daughters alcohol they are putting them at risk of rape," says Feministing blogger Samhita. "What about telling young men to not rape drunk women? That is what the focus of the PSA should be. Perhaps another conversation about youth and alcohol consumption is needed, but let's not tangle the issues."

I agree that there should be more education for guys about a girl's right to say no. But I think it's Samhita who is mixing the messages here. This is about parents not taking care of their kids. It's about a smarmy smiling dad (watch the video and you'll see it) handing his daughter a big box of booze, putting her in a car full of teenagers with said alcohol and waving without a care in the world. Rape isn't the only horrible thing that can happen to her out there.

Unfortunately, rape is a reality, and there is only so much parents can do to protect their daughters. The U.S. Department of Justice has surmised a woman is raped here in the states every two minutes. It can happen in broad daylight or a dark alleyway. It can happen with alcohol or without. And you don't have to tell me that girls who undergo some sort of sexual abuse often feel like it's our fault.

Which is why arming our daughters to protect them from some day being raped is part of our jobs. Not because they're the weaker sex. Not because they're doing something wrong. Because it's something that can, and shouldn't have to happen. Add alcohol to any situation where boys and girls co-mingle, and statistics show the risk of a rape occuring increases. The U.S. Department of Justice Violence Against Women report figures 45 percent of all rapes involve alcohol - which could mean the victim or the attacker. The numbers include adult women, but considering two in six rape victim are under 18, there are plenty of teen girls being raped where alcohol is a factor.

Not because they're bad kids or because they asked for it but because they lost their ability to function because they drank too much. They lost their ability to protect themselves from the dangers that are out there, and guess who failed to protect them? Their parents. The ones who sent them to a party with a bunch of alcohol and no education on what it can do.

So, yes, I do put a portion of blame on the parents. Which was the point of the PSA to begin with - to teach them not to provide ther kids with free alcohol, to teach their kids about the affects alcohol will have on the body - including the risk of blackout, the risk of losing the physical strength to push off an attacker, and the risk that someone else who's drunk may have their inhibitions reduced to the point where they'll do something stupid. Like rape a girl.

In fact, the PSA shows a girl being abused, but the narrator says "67 percent of teenagers have been abused or assaulted whilst under the influence of alcohol." She says "your children." She doesn't say girls. She doesn't say daughters. It's an advertisement about protecting our girls and our boys, teaching girls to protect themselves, teaching boys they're not allowed to use alcohol as an excuse.

It's an advertisement that puts the responsibility for kids in their parents' hands. And when they drop the ball, the blame belongs with them.

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