Who Needs to be Shamed?

You don’t need a sledgehammer to kill a cockroach, but if all you have is a sledgehammer, then what are we likely to use? I think it is critically important to remember that mobile phones with cameras and SMS functionality are all recent developments.

I’m relatively new to planet earth, yet even I can remember “back in the day when I was a young one” there was no such technology. Adam Allen did the wrong thing (his fault) at the wrong time (not his fault). It’s difficult to imagine a court sentencing him similarly even today, less than a decade onward. Yet, almost worse than his verdict, was the ‘slut’ shaming of his victim. Let’s grant the courts some leniency by allowing they are restricted in their thinking, let’s call that a sledgehammer mindset.

Alternatively, what basis of compassion should we evoke for the Orlando Sentinel reporter who suggested the victim “taunted” Adam? The reporter doubles down on targeting her, suggesting Allen never requested the pictures. How does she know this fact? It’s not even believable, given every teenage boy I’ve known. Or how about the heroic FOX reporter, suggesting the victim, who’s neighbours, teachers and friends all received the revealing, private images, “got off scot-free.” Really? I ask you who needs to be shamed, a sixteen-year-old testing her newfound sexuality or a “professional” reporter testing her trade without wisdom?

A few other thoughts. Media does not happen in a vacuum. How was it that this story received such wide coverage? And who benefited from that exposure? I suspect Mr. Allen’s advisors knew he had lost the legal battle, quickly set out to repair his reputation in the court of public opinion. It’s their right to do so, but I think the public should be cognizant of the game being played here. I don’t believe it is public advocacy as Mr. Allen claims. Second, the elephant in the room, is sex. In this case, teenage sexuality. The laws, the reporters, even Adam’s regrettable dispatch… they all speak to an interpretation of teenage sexuality rooted in something other than biology. It is deep sprouted, and likely unchangeable. But whatever this mindset is, it makes sledgehammers seem like feathers.

References

Ringrose, J., Harvey, L., Gill, R. & Livingstone, S. (2013). Teen girls, sexual double standards, and ‘sexting’: Gendered value in digital image exchange. Feminist Theory 14(3), 305–323.