I briefly observed a program on the TV, I think it was the CBC while half asleep showing the antics of high school students in the hallways. Boys were cupping girls buttocks and breasts as the girls passed by, with girls showing minimum protest and laughing it off. Then there were interviews with girls indicating the difficulty with responding to the problem.
I’m assuming given the attention by the network, that the problem is prevalent.
It was never like that when I went to high school in the sixties. Sure, we started the sexual revolution, but we did generally respect the physical privacy of the girls.
I also recalled seeing some highly sexualized dancing amongst teenagers on tv, such as the Jerk, which includes girls cupping there own breasts and guys holding on to their balls.
I find all this somewhat concerning. I think this can only lead to a significant increase on the part of boys and men to disregard the boundaries, physical and oral, that most girls and women generally prefer in regards to interacting with the opposite sex.
Have I misrepresented the trend I’ve observed ?
Do you agree that sexual assault is being redefined ?
Do you agree that this is a problem for the future?
Those kinds of boundaries are think are more clearly drawn in the workplace than they used to be. Among kids, maybe not, but they should be. I agree, the scenario you mention is disturbing. Were there any teachers or administrators observing that behavior?
I’m inclined to agree with janeslogin. While I do think schools should be balancing the messages teens get about hypersexualization and sexual liberation with sex ed, media analysis, gender studies, etc., wild teen sex stories mostly seem to be the result of a reporter hearing their kid’s gossipy friend passing on some exaggerated message.
I’m not sure exactly what you’re asking here, but when I was an adolescent (10-15 years ago) there were several times when boys my age or a little older groped me. Most of these times I put up minimal protest because I was frightened and didn’t know what to do.* If there had been a TV camera on me I might have laughed and acted like it was no big deal, because what would the alternative have been – break down crying for the whole world to see?
FWIW, I was pretty much the opposite of a hypersexualized teen (hyposexualized, I guess), never danced in a suggestive manner, and rarely wore an outfit that exposed more than my hands, neck, and face.
*There was one time when I did slap the guy and told him if he touched me again I’d kill him. Unfortunately, he was my best friend’s boyfriend, and long story short she wound up telling everyone we knew that I was a lying psycho bitch. Years later she did call me and apologize.
Homer Simpsons said it best when he commented how amusing that Coppertone ad was. You know how the dog pulled down the little girl’s shorts to reveal a tan lane.
Homer Simpson comments while it was once amusing now we know it was sexual harrassment
Yes, so did I.
Let me tell you, if there were guys running around cupping girls’ tits, then those people were part of the same social circle and probably have already fooled around many times. The cupping is a sort of thrill. It’s taboo, and yet if you think about it it means absolutely nothing. And yes, there’s a lot of sexualized dancing of the sort where kids rub their genitals into eachother. Ahh, the humanity of it. They’re destroying their little minds and all that…
I don’t know. You say this was something you saw on a TV program. I don’t know any teenagers well enough to ask about this, but if true it is something to worry about.
Redefined how? By whom? Grabbing tits or asses unsolicited is assault. Plain and simple. If you are being groped you should notify the proper authority.
Of course it is. If no action is taken the offender will continue his/her bad behaviour possibly leading to criminal charges.
I graduated high school less than a year ago, and from my experience(limited though it may be), the kind of behavior you describe is not very prevalent among the majority of highschoolers. I have never personally observed this kind of behavior, nor have I heard of it from anybody I went to school with.
Of course, I’m a guy, and I never hung around guys that would do that sort of thing, or girls who would tolerate it. So maybe my high school experience was simply more sheltered than the norm. But I’d like to think that I would be aware of that kind of disrespectful behavior if it happened right under my nose. I went to a high school that didn’t have much of a sexual harassment culture(just a drug/alcohol one), so while this kind of behavior might be more common in some schools and communities, it wasn’t in mine.
Class of 2000 here and this was not common or accepted in the slightest. Of course, now I’m an old old bastard, so who knows what is prevalent in high schools these days? But I would chalk this up to putting cameras in 20 schools, taping a few thousand hours, and then editing it down until you’ve got a nice, manufactured scandal for the evening news.
This is how the news works. One kidnapping/rape/assault/overdose indicates a pattern and is a serious threat to our children, two is an indictment of their entire morally bankrupt generation. There is no such thing as an isolated incident and our culture is going to hell in a hand basket.
You know I think that our children’s society is degrading and has been for quite some time.
Is it the teaching of artistic views vs. religious? Is it the lack of discipline in today’s school vs older school settings? Is it parental responsibilities being shirked?
Probably a combination of all the above and more. What do we do to change it?
These damned kids today. No respect, I tell ya! Why, when I was a kid…yadda yadda, lack of discipline yadda yadda, no respect etc. etc.
Enough already. You’re all sounding like your parents. High schoolers are commonly committing sexual assault just like we casually committed ritual murder and worshipped Satan through Dungeons and Dragons. Everyone thinks the generation before them were a bunch of stiffneck hard asses, and the generation after them are depraved amoral heathens in need of intervention. Nothing new here.
Hell, I was at a Dopefest once, and I saw 2 or 3 guys fondling a woman’s breasts almost like they were standing in line. So I got in line. And when I got up to her I asked, “Can I feel them too?” She said NO, and when the look on my face said “Why not me?”, she said that the other guys didn’t ask. One did it, and the others decided it was okay since she didn’t object or make a scene.
Everyone involved was in their 20s or 30, except me. I was older. Honestly, I don’t understand the actions of ANY of them. How could the men assume what they did, and how could she just stand there and allow it to happen?
That sounds about right–I don’t think people like to make a scene in general, especially at that age group, when if you do complain, the reaction is often, “Aw, what’s the big deal–you’re going to get him in trouble for that little thing?”
If they haven’t asked or there’s no expectation of it, then it’s assault. They’re free to do whatever they want as long as they have consent.
I teach in a high school, and this sort of thing is NOT common. When we were very, very overcrowded, girls would complain at times about getting groped in a particularly busy corner where it was hard to identify who might have done it, but aside from that we’ve never had any issue like this that I am aware of. It certainly isn’t normal or acceptable behavior.