On the theme of school admin busy-bodies....

"Dozens of Gig Harbor High School students demonstrated outside the school Monday to protest an official's decision to show parents surveillance video of their daughter kissing another girl ... The parents moved the girl to a different school district after watching it." [KOMOnews]

See also:
Gig Harbor school tape of kiss leads to complaint

Classic Cover: Rebel without a Button

Dungarees are teh ebil.

The Arizona Strip Search Case

It is a clash of the great moral panics of our time. Is suspicion of drug possession ground for strip searching a 13-year-old girl?

I find it interesting that Justice David Souter clearly knows which bogeyman scares him more. He compares the alleged possession of ibuprofen to a "dead kid" and strip search a girl in a way that was humiliating enough to cause her to drop out of that school despite being a conscientious honor student as just a little "embarrassment". So that's okay then.

Meanwhile another girl caught with a terrifying drug, the birth control pill, was suspended and threatened with expulsion. I can't help but wonder if this is partly due to the powers that be and their attitudes about schoolgirls and the pill? (In an area where 1/4 to 1/2 of students are sexually active).

Or is it just that in both cases a zero tolerance policy is the next best thing to a lobotomy? Because the fear of any and all objects in pill form seems to be far more important than a girl's dignity, control over her own body, and access to education.

Sexting

Sometimes we don't need a new word for something--if it isn't a new thing.

Sexting.

There have always been horny teens. There have always been ways of fixing an image. There have aways been ways of transmitting an image--even if you had to chisel it on a rock and attach it to a very hefty carrier pigeon.

If a 16-year-old girl takes a picture of herself and sends it to someone, where is the victim? And in the absence of a victim, where is the crime? I am as against child porn as anyone but can there even be such a thing as remote self-child-abuse?

'Sploitation

I generally rather like 'sleaze' paperbacks. They are cheap vintage yellowback books generally with gratuitous sex and violence, but honestly the story itself is generally pretty readable. But every now and again I strike one that is a bit much.

I mean... 'splotation, let me count the ways. We have the sexy (underage) girl, blacksploitation, rape reference, other violence and a whopping dose of moral panic related to young black men. I may be judging a book by it's cover, but I skimmed the first chapter and honestly I am not even trying to slog through this one. It seems to be 75% pure untagged dialogue and first person to boot, and that's before our lovely protagonist gets to taking girls "by force".

So sue me I am not going to try too hard to get into a book that serves up 140 pages of nasty wish fufillent with half a page of just deserts to make it all right. I actually think people should be able to indulge any fantasies they like--but I can't palate combining it with smug disdain at the same time.

Black Witchery and Whack Bitchery

So, back to the point of this blog: gender, sexuality and books. And Today's book (points upwards) is "Witchcraft of America Today"--or more specifically, in 1970.

The first thing to notice is that this is a moral panic book. (Oh noes, I can haz damnation?) In a wake of the sixties every good Judeo-Christian man knew that witchcraft was a serious, serious problem! (Oh those terrible rabble-rousing Wiccans, LOL).

"One may wade in the occult water, dabble for a hobby or a recreation ... But in doing so it should always be remembered that witchcraft has strong, unknown undercurrents not to be trifled with at the risk of being pulled beneath the surface."

What, you might ask, are those dreadful undercurrents. Well, here is a clue.

"Relaxation of American sexual mores in the 1960s has encouraged the resurgence of interest and practice of witchcraft ... covens basically serve as an outlet for sexual release of sexual inhibitions and determination to achieve equality with the male."

If you are ever in need of a good laugh, pick up this book. Why did women in the 60s rise up for equal rights and take part in free love? Well, obviously, the devil made them do it.