4 ms·
The consequences for a young boy saddled with the long term consequences of fatherhood or child support are serious. Secondly, if parents were truly concerned
by xenocyon 7y ago
The consequences for a young boy saddled with the long term consequences of fatherhood or child support are serious.
Secondly, if parents were truly concerned about this they would provide condoms, support, and healthcare rather than stern (and ultimately useless) admonitions and, even worse, sexist jokes. It's not a coincidence that states with a reactionary attitude to sex and sexism see the highest rate of teen pregnancies.
- nostrademons 7y agoI think the implication is that it's easier for young boys to get out of their parental responsibilities than for young girls. I've seen, a number of times, friends & family & random Internet advice-givers of teenage fathers say "Get a paternity test!" or "Don't sign anything". Particularly if they're close with the father but don't like the mother. Sometimes even if the dad-to-be is excited about having a kid. It's a very marked contrast to how we treat adult males (and what we claim to value as a society), where the advice is usually "Time to man up, get a job, and be a dad." No such thing as a maternity test, and we tend to excoriate young mothers who might want to shirk their maternal responsibilities. There's probably something revealing there about self-interest and who we identify with in a situation.
- woah 7y agoNo such thing as a maternity test? Isn’t it kind of obvious?
- nostrademons 7y agoThat was the point. Everybody knows who the mother of a baby is; fathers have plausible deniability.
- ben_w 7y agoUsually. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Fairchild https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Fairchild Linked case wasn’t even the one I was looking for, but the cause was the same. Still the mother, but surprisingly non-obvious.