Better.

[pen_grunt]

In response to all those creepy-as-fuck, degrading, abhorrent posts about dads as the protectors of their daughter's virginity:

Better.

Of course, when a friend posted this on FB, there was a big: Oh, so you're going to let your daughter do whatever she wants and have underage sex and TEEN PREGNANCY CONCERN TROLLING...?

Dude. A 17 year old girl having sex is much less scary than those daddy-daughter abstinence balls, purity rings, etc. That shit is whack.

Comments

[matrixmann]

You wonder why fathers take so much care of their daughters, but not of their sons?

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

That's what bugs me so much. Overprotective parents being across-the-board overprotective? Fine. But you'd never see a dad wearing a "Touch my son and die" t-shirt like you do with daughters.

[matrixmann]

Well, I don't know if some mix their daughters up with a pony or an expansive golden clock... At least, if you think about earlier times where children only were permitted to exist in marriage, parents urged their teenage kids to mary when there was a kid on the way, so you'd guess the "only the girl is to blame"-guilt didn't even fully exist then.
So why is it only the daughter these days?
It doesn't seem reasonable.

[eyelid.livejournal.com]

It was always just in the girl because 1) patriarchy and 2) she was the one who got pregnant. No plausible deniability.

[matrixmann]

Said that both got urged to marry. So it couldn't be just only her guilt then.

[grenacia.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been enjoying seeing posts of this shirt go around too. I guess there is potential, though, for one to read it as implying that this father doesn't set any rules for his daughter. And if the daughter isn't an adult yet, it is reasonable to set some rules. I don't think that's really what the shirt is about, though. And in any case, teenagers will sneak around rules like whoa!

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

I think that it's a stretch to interpret it as "no rules whatsoever" since the context of dating is pretty clear, and the "her body, her rules" further clarifies. (Someone did, however, interpret it like that...as though it were dad giving encouragement to have unprotected sex for some reason.)

I'm all for parents setting rules (even: don't date until X age at all) but different rules for sons vs. daughters and then the threat-of-violence stuff directed at the dating-daughter's potential partner? ICK.

[grenacia.livejournal.com]

Not everyone will be able to understand the context, it's not too weird for someone to see it as the dad saying he doesn't set any rules for his teenage daughter in regards to dating. Though I can see that that's not what the shirt is about, some people are much more ignorant and paranoid.

[eyelid.livejournal.com]

I agree. It's totally obvious what the shirt is saying. HER BODY, her rules.

[newlifeinstpaul.livejournal.com]

Can't say I'm terribly fond of the thought of my 17 year-old daughter having sex. But I'm not terribly fond of the thought of her driving either. Cuz I don't think of my 17 year-old as a 17 year-old. I think of her as The Midget in the Icon.

However, the thought of her panicking cuz she's got a sexual health situation and no one to TURN to 'bout it is 394857948375984753875 to the 85^th power worse. Much less a Personal Safety situation courtesy of some a-hole.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

Yeahbut. "Her body, her rules" could mean that she DOESN'T want to have sex--not because dad has levied a threat of violence at a potential suitor--but because she's not ready and she gets to say that that kind of pressure isn't okay.

[newlifeinstpaul.livejournal.com]

Pregnant from some moron, car wrapped around a tree, baptized into a bass-ackward Fundie religion...worry is worry. It's not the only thing I ruminate about.

We both know--as does her older sister, who wound up walking in on her--that Midget IS somewhat uhm, carnally interested in some Random Dude down the street. It's not as if I'm speaking hypothetically about my fears.

She does NOT wish to speak to me in detail about it. But if she wanted to, I'd listen. She'd be much more likely to speak to Brenda. That's fine, too. As long as she knows the door's open!

[eyelid.livejournal.com]

I think being concerned is more reasonable than being possessive.