The verdict on Hannah and the Montana judge

Teens’ depiction boosts destructive perception

Outrage abounds over a “twerking” Miley Cyrus at the MTV Video Music Awards. But the chatter might have missed a larger point.

I was ready to dismiss the “let’s condemn Miley” parade, until I read a story about a Montana man convicted of the statutory rape of a 14year- old student in 2008. Stacey Rambold was originally sentenced to 15 years in jail for the rape of Cherice Moralez, with all but 31 days suspended if he successfully completed a sex offender program. He failed to do that, bringing him back to court to be jailed for only one month.

Why such a shockingly light sentence? And where’s the connection between that and Cyrus?

WHO’S IN CONTROL? According to Yellowstone County District Judge G. Todd Baugh on Monday, he didn’t impose a harsher sentence on Moralez’s rapist because she “seemed older than her chronological age” and he believed that she was “as much in control of the situation” as her attacker. Moralez committed suicide in 2010 just before her 17th birthday.

Wednesday, the judge said he is sorry: “I don’t know what I was thinking or trying to say. It was just stupid and wrong.” He may not know where he got the idea, but I might.

My daughter is a few months shy of 14. Knowing her as I do, there is no question that, regardless of how a middle- school girl appears, no adult “consent” could be given by a young teen to her fortysomething male teacher. Which brought me back to the Miley Cyrus/ twerking debacle. I wondered: Have today’s sexually charged images of young girls and women warped how judges, and others, view real life victims of rape and sexual assault?

Cyrus isn’t the only media example of warped views of tweens and teens. Though she is 20, many of us still see her as the tween/ teen star of Disney’s Hannah Montana. We all have a mental image of her as that more wholesome child, even as she struts on stage today. Shows like 16 and Pregnant reinforce the idea that girls are sexually mature before they graduate from high school. The music industry inundates us with salacious images, such as the Britney Spears/ Madonna French- kissing episode 10 years ago also on the VMAs.

‘ VERY REAL PROBLEM’ One sickening view is that girls entice inappropriate sexual advances. A 2011 article in The New York Times, about an 11- year- old girl who was gang raped in a small Texas town, suggested that she provoked the attack by her provocative attire.

The increased media sexualization of young girls isn’t just anecdotal. A recent study by The Parents Television Council found a “very real problem” of teen girls being shown in sexually exploitative ways that are often presented as humorous.

Whether there is a connection between these images and teen sexual abuse isn’t clear, but according to the Department of Justice, one- third of sexual assault victims are ages 12- 17, and those ages 16- 19 are three- and- ahalf times more likely to be sexually assaulted or become victims of rape than the general population.

In light of these statistics and the Parents Television Council’s recent study, it doesn’t seem to be a huge leap to suggest that with young girls increasingly sexualized in the media, teen victims of sexual assault may be judged more harshly because too many see a child as being “in control.”