Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Oops, she did...oh, forget it, too easy

"The Spears news was actually a welcome development. It's generated a lot of hand-wringing, heartfelt but ultimately misplaced, over what message the fallen role model sends to tween fans. Sorry, but I don't imagine a lot of 16-year-olds, in the grip of hormonal urges, thinking: Gee, Jamie Lynn did, why not go for it? But they might think: Whoa, birth control."

I'm not quite so confident in the intelligence of the average 16-year-old, nor their ability to reason that this is a lesson they can learn from. Unless Jamie Lynn does the right thing, coming out intentionally, publicly and saying something to the tweens and teens of the world like: "I messed up. I made a bad decision and it's going to affect me for the rest of my life. Please learn from my mistake. You're better off not having sex -- it's the only 100% effective way to prevent pregnancy -- but if you must have sex, use condoms, the pill, or both!"

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