New PSA Shames Teen Parents

May is National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month, so I thought it would be appropriate to take a look at the New York City's Human Resources Administration's new campaign. The new PSA was released a few weeks ago, intended to combat the high rate of teen pregnancy in the city, though the HRA's message needs some polishing.

The HRA states, "HRA's new Teen Pregnancy Prevention campaign shows the high costs teen pregnancy can have for both teen parents and their children. The campaign features ads with hard-hitting facts about the money and time costs of parenting and the negative consequences of having a child before you are ready." Taking a look at some of the advertisements, I question who the HRA is trying to reach out to.

The campaign features a series of four pictures of toddlers, posed to look neglected and upset. With the exception of one token white toddler, the series of photos are primarily made up of minority children. Coupled with slogans like "Honestly Mom, chances are he won't stay with you", message is pretty clear to me - the HRA is speaking to minority teenage women, the group with the highest rate of teen pregnancy.

I will admit, being a twenty-something Puerto Rican woman and childless is perceived as an accomplishment, but that in no way excuses the blatant racism in these advertisements. These ads are simultaneously shaming already pregnant teenagers, while suggesting those non-pregnant teens will end up barefoot and pregnant if they don't finish high school first. 

Why are we using shame to prevent teen pregnancy? Where's the comprehensive sexual education? Why isn't the HRA offering support and empathy in these ads? I'm surprised that a city as progressive as New York released these posters. Shocked, I sent the NOTNOW text to 877877 to discover "the real price of teen pregnancy". It opened with a choice to play either a young woman or young man and make decisions based on different scenarios that ultimately lead to not becoming pregnant and being successful or becoming pregnant, having a fallout with the parent, and paying the ultimate price for teen pregnancy - which in this case is having a baby, not finishing school, and being poor.

I thought game in the beginning was a little much, but the number does continue to send text messages (until you opt out), providing information and random trivia questions regarding contraceptives and sexual activity - ex. Can you get pregnant while on your period? (yes, you can). The HRA, like most organizations, are trying to reach out to teens using the same social media tools they interact with on a daily basis. I approve of texts following the scenario they played out, but the campaign could definitely use some tweaking. NYC definitely needs to stop these shame campaigns, wagging a finger at someone has not and will never be an effective approach to promoting well-being.

So it's come to this - Anti-Rape Lingerie

Apparently three engineering students in India have created a bra that electrically shocks predators when they grope their victims. Inspired by recent rapes in India and an attempt to tackle the disgraceful rape culture, the students hope the electric brassiere will discourage sexual assaults. Isabel Wilkinson for the Daily Beast writes, "The garments—named Society Harnessing Equipment (SHE)—have been wired with pressure sensors and equipped with an “electric-shock circuit board,” which delivers up to 82 electric shocks when the garments detect unwanted force. Using a GPS system, the undergarments can also apparently send an alert to parents or police." The students chose to re-wire the bra because studies have shown that it's the first area most likely to be groped by assailants.

Though this is doused with good intentions, the fact that there is a sense of necessity to create undergarments that will condition men to not sexually assault women disgusts me. This new bra is essentially another Bobo Doll experiment. I'm glad that there are individuals out there who are trying to think of inventive ways to combat sexual assault and rape, but at the same time perhaps we should start paying more attention to society and the culture of rape.

An electrified bra implies that this behavior comes naturally to these assailants getting a shock from a bra when you grope a woman is the equivalent to smacking a child's hand out of the way when they reach for a cookie. Breasts are not cookies and you can't just reach for them whenever you feel the urge to. Nip the behavior in the bud, focus on the message we are sending to adolescents by not prosecuting rapists or sympathizing with the college football players who had so much potential before one unfortunate evening. We don't need an electric-shock bra, we need to change our attitude on rape.

Rape and Social Media

It's much easier to rapidly share and spread information with social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. The rapid advancement of social media has improved all our lives, but for all the good it has done, there is a darker side to social media - a side that has been used to do a great deal of damage and bullying.

Selena Ross of The Chronicle Herald, reported the story of Rehtaeh Parsons - a 17 year old girl on life support due to a failed suicide attempt. Parsons attempted to hang herself in the bathroom of her parents house, as a result of post-traumatic stress from being raped and bullied when she was 15 years old. After removing her from life support, her mother shared her daughter's story.

Along with her several others, 15 year old Rehtaeh went to a friends house where she was later raped by four teenage boys. Rehtaeh didn't immediately report the incident to her parents or the police until backlash from her peers ensued. Pictures of her being sexually assaulted that evening quickly circulated and soon people were harassing her for being a "slut". The investigation is still ongoing. Despite the damage it caused the Parson family, Ross also demonstrates how social media can bring people together for a cause. Ross posts videos, photos, and tweets of people sharing their disgust for society's victim-shaming in cases like these and as well as advocating for victims.

I found it compelling that Rehtaeh's mother used social media to share her daughter's tragic story. Ironic, yes, but it demonstrates how social media can effectively be used for good. It's very easy for anyone to create a profile and start spreading slander, it has made bullying that much easier and anonymous. It's important that we don't turn social media into a weapon of mass destruction.

Rape, Racism, and the Law - Denials and Accusations of Rape based on Race

Just as the second wave feminist disregarded the plight of minority, working-class women, so did the law regarding rape. It’s very unsettling to think of a time in our government when the rape of an African American woman was legal and race was used as direct evidence for the rape of white women. Jennifer Wriggin begins her article, Rape, Racism, and the Law, discussing the focus on alleged black offenders and white victims of rape; in the eye of the law, all a white woman needed to do in the late 1800s to early 1900s was say a black man raped her and he would be convicted. Bestial behavior has been closely associated with African Americans since the beginning of slavery, making rape a crime assumed to be committed by African American men. In a time period when Emmett Till was brutally murdered for being too friendly to a white woman and his white assailants were found not guilty, it wasn't surprising to discover in Wriggin’s article that all a white woman needed to do was call fowl and the case was closed. What’s worse is that the rape convictions for black offenders still remain much harsher when the victim is white, oppose to vice versa.

In addition to this course, I’m also enrolled in a Race and Ethnic Relations course this semester and my professor summed up the objective of white segregationists as protecting the purity of their white women. It’s a pretty adolescent summation of white oppression, but is evident in Wriggin’s article. Taking a look at the Central Park Jogger case, Wriggin’s claims hold true. The case involved four African Americans and one Latino put on trial for allegedly raping an affluent white woman in Central Park. The five teenagers didn't commit the crime but were influenced to plead guilty which was disproved years later through DNA testing. The harsh convictions of alleged black offenders is just one side of the race issue, the race/rape issue takes an ugly turn when the alleged offender is white and the victim is black.

Twana Brawley, a fifteen year old African American, was found unconscious in a dumpster and later accused six white men of rape. Tawana’s case was highly publicized, with much controversy due to inconsistencies in the case. Whether Tawana’s accusations had holes or not ceases to be the issue at hand, the mere fact that this person’s race and the race of her attackers determined how the case was handled and how the media reported it illustrates the institutional racism that exists in the courts. If Tawana was a white teenager, the emphasis wouldn't have been on whether or not she was telling the truth, but more on her attackers – who would more than likely be assumed to be black.

With every highly publicized case of rape, comes the awful reminder of the rape culture that exists in our country. The extent to which law enforcement investigates a person’s accusation should not be determined by gender or race. Victim shaming and harsh convictions with lack of evidence are all too common and race is the underlying determinate in both instances. Wriggin’s suggest we rid the legal system of racist ideologies and look at sexual assault for what it is rather than who committed it. The belief that African American men behave like beasts and African American women are hyper-sexual does not excuse behavior or sexual assault and should not determine conviction. Sexual assault is a crime, regardless of race.

Given the media coverage on recent sexual assault cases, do you think there will ever be a time in our culture and legal system where rape convictions won’t be founded on gender, race, and class of both victim and offender?