Mid School Girls Gone Wild

It's always fun (in an infuriating kind of way) to have a sexpanic unfold before one's eyes (or ears). Well, that happened today. See, on Wednesday, StinkyLulu drives around ABQ, delivering a local free rag to fine local establishments. This, of course, means that -- on Wednesdays -- StinkyLulu listens to a lot of talk radio. This Wednesday, the following story was burning up the local airwaves... (It's pasted in its entirety cuz it's not available yet for linkage.)

From THE ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL
Police Say Porn Taped at Mid-High School
By Michael Davis
A trio of students are being investigated for making a pornographic videotape at Rio Rancho Mid-High School during their lunch hour last month. "We are conducting an investigation of a video that was made at the mid-high, allegedly made near the end of the school year," Department of Public Safety spokesman John Francis said. "The tape was allegedly made by students." He said he could not reveal more details because the case remains under investigation. According to a Sandoval County sheriff's supplemental narrative, two female students were caught kissing and engaging in other sexual acts during second lunch hour. They were being videotaped by a male student. The students' ages were not available; the mid-high serves eighth- and ninth-graders. "There weren't any adults involved, but it's still pornography," Sheriff John Paul Trujillo said Tuesday. Sheriff's deputy Joe Harris said he was called to assist Rio Rancho Mid-High's school resource officer Joe Chavez with a situation involving a very irate parent, the supplemental report says. The parent was upset because her daughter was caught participating in a lesbian sex video, the report says. When the woman asked her daughter how long she had been engaging in lesbian acts, the girl replied "since sixth grade" because her mother didn't let her go out with boys, the report says. Assistant principal Donna Stotts told the woman that some students had video cameras because they were doing a project for journalism class, according to the report. Stotts told the woman the tape and camera in question had been locked in a desk and would be turned over to Rio Rancho police as evidence. Rio Rancho Public Schools spokeswoman Kim Vesely confirmed Tuesday an incident involved students videotaping inappropriate behavior, and that it resulted in suspensions. Vesely said she could not comment further because it is a disciplinary incident. No charges have been filed at this time. But Sandoval County District Attorney Lemuel Martinez said the incident could result in felony charges for violations of New Mexico's Sexual Exploitation of Children statute, even though the students are minors. Rio Rancho Deputy Police Chief Steve Shaw said that once the investigation was complete, the file would be sent to the state Juvenile Probation Office to determine whether charges will be filed. (Copyright 2005 Albuquerque Journal)

So. The citizens of the greater Albuquerque area were all aflutter about this -- using this situation as a springboard for righteous pronouncements about all society's ills: public schools are a menace; whatsamatter with kids today; those hollywood degenerates; homosexuality is ruining this country; when did schoolgirls start offering hummers... The usual.

What astonished (& riled) the Lulu was that the girls were demonized as slutty perverted lesbos while the boy was either not mentioned at all or dismissed as 'just doing what boys do' (like your voice cracks & then you start filming sex acts). But as things went on, the whole fandango became an example of how this culture uses "sex acts" to describe identity without even being able to name what those "sex acts" are. Rather than interpreting this incident as an example of teenage girls using their sexuality to "act out" and gain the attention of boys, the moralistic handwringing emphasized how Paris Hilton & hip-hop culture has turned girls into sluts. Never mind that this sounds like a midschooler filming his own entry into the hugely successful "Girls Gone Wild" video ouevre. Never mind that one radio host spent his morning breathlessly grilling 13-14 year old callers on the details of sexual behavior they had witnessed at their school. Never mind that another whined for hours about how girls never hummed when he was in school. And the only local female host clucked squeamishly wondering when 14 year olds started being lesbians. (Like two babydykes in love would do anything in front of a teenboy's camera.)

Ironically, the last time this school was in the news it was when they suspended a kid for trying to stop his own farting. And when Dick Cheney spoke there the same week his daughter Mary's lesbianism became a campaign issue.

But now, it's the week of the Jackson verdict, and the continuing obsession with that missing Aruba girl, and stories like this continue to enthrall the masses. No harm, right? I mean, it's not like there's a war going on or anything...