Yesterday, news broke of a woman who claimed to be the mother of Justin Bieber's child. 20 year-old California resident Mariah Yeater filed a paternity suit against the tween idol, claiming the two had sex backstage after his concert at L.A.'s Staples Center on October 25th of last year. This completely undermines Bieber's squeaky clean image, and many fans are up in arms.
However, while many news sources are just focusing on the tantalizing details of Bieber's first real scandal, I've not yet seen anyone talk about the possible criminal aspect of this allegation: statutory rape. If Yeater's claims are true, she would have been 19 and Bieber would have been 16 when they had intercourse. This is in violation of California's statutory rape laws, which clearly state that the age of consent for that state is 18.
In fact, instead of ackowledging Bieber's possible victimization, many articles are arguing that this scandal has finally made him a man. As this article says, "Like witnessing the gentle fawn taking its first wobbly steps toward becoming a full-grown stag, Justin Bieber has slowly begun sloughing off his billowy swoops of golden fur and developing the tough leather hide of a man—a maturation evidenced of late by his deepening singing voice, his occasional back-sass at the dinner table, and now, his very first paternity suit." While this statement is clearly meant to be humorous, it completely disregards the fact that Bieber was a child at the time when the alleged sex occurred and instead argues that the paternity test will boost the teenage star's image of burgeoning manhood. Do you think this portrayal is harmful? How do you think it would be different if the gender roles were reversed?
I agree with you that the backlash against the two would be different had it had been an under aged girl and an older man. The fact that a boy needs to have sex in order to become a man in our society in absolutely mind boggling. If the roles would have been reversed and it had been an older man seducing a younger girl, the girl would be a victim and the old man would have taken advantage of her. This sends a clear message to the young boys in our country that manhood begins once they first have sex with a women.
ReplyDeleteI personally could not care less about celebrities, but there are a lot of people o who. And there are so many girls and boys who are extreme Bieber fans and I think this scandal can't only affect how kid's see this pop star, but also they way react to it. What I mean is that this could be providing kids with the idea that it's okay to black mail and lie to people in order for others to think differently about you and help you socially. This could be referring to the woman who claims having sex with Bieber. Another probable reaction our youth today could have, is that loosing your virginity is glamorous. That exploiting yourself and others, is okay as long as this benefits you and your popularity.
ReplyDeleteThere is no doubt that there would be way more backlash if the roles were reversed. An older man and a younger woman would be considered rape. I have to ask myself though, other than the obvious reasons, why the hell else would a person exploit themselves like that?
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