Bashing Youth and the "Womens Burden"

"Bashing Youth and Wild in Deceit" is an article written by Mike Males about how young people are marginalized and made to feel inferior in our society. The author points out that the fact of the matter is that although teens are blamed for a multitude of societies problems they actually only make up a small amount of those problems. Although the author barely mentions the Columbine shootings, I really think this event in American history really set the American public in a wave of panic. The author also lists reasons for the public unjustly blaming teens for societal problems. One of the main reason the author says society blames young people is the fact that they are easy to blame. People under the age of 18 cannot vote, therefor they are not fairly represented by politicians. In fact, whenever a politician speaks about children they are only speaking to their parents. They want to be tougher on schools or get better teachers. This isn't pandering to young people, this is pandering to parents. This is a very good point but the author did not go one step further. In our society people under 18 are less than a full human. Certain laws and rules don't pertain to them. They are not adults and we do not see them as adults. We do not expect children to make proper decisions all the time because they are still children. We also see them as embodying a innocence like presented in "Nymphet Fantasies." When one of our innocent children kill someone it hurts a lot more than when a 40 year old drunk out of work man kills someone. That is perhaps why we put more emphasis on it when it does happen. The author talks about teen pregnancies and the author makes an amazing point that the teen pregnancy issue is focused around female teens. Very little blame is put on the male adults that in more cases than not help create the pregnancy. This is just down right sexist. A lot of this has to do with the fact though that like it or not a woman is ultimately responsible for a child in today's society. Because woman actually give birth to a child they cannot hide the fact that they are having or had a child because they physically got pregnant. A man has the freedom to deny left and right and because their is not physical evidence like a bulging stomach, they can safely distance themselves from the situation. There can always be doubt about the father of a baby but never the mother while she is pregnant. And although I would argue there is certainly some sexist tones for the reason why teen pregnancy is a "woman's problems" it is more so because woman have more to lose due to the fact that they actually carry the child and are placed with a lot more responsibility. Now we can hope that men will own up to their responsibilities as well and it is very important that men do so, and men should be blamed as much as women, but the biology of it dictates that women have more invested at not becoming pregnant before they are ready. I love women for the fact that they can give birth but I am damn happy I don't have to.