(This is NOT the actual photo. Given that some people are blogging that it is, I thought that needed to be cleared up)
A 15 year old girl (Marissa Miller) is being threatened with the possibility of being a registered sex offender. Did she rape someone or have sex in public or strip down naked in a shopping mall? Well, not exactly. You see, she is being charged with the atrocity that is--brace for this -- having a female friend take a picture of her from the waist up. Ok, so she was wearing only a bra, but still. Did I mention the picture was taken two years ago at a slumber party and the girl did not distribute the picture to anyone (see report here)?
How anyone can see the police threatening her with these charges as anything except crap (yes, crap), is beyond me. But then again, when it comes to morality influencing decisions, humans are far from rational.
Moral reasoning research (see professor Jon Haidt's work) indicates that people typically base how moral something is on a gut-level, emotional response. Only after the emotion has decided-in a sense- whether it is right or wrong, do people seek reasons why they feel that way. And the kicker is this: Even if those reasons are discredited or challenged, people still cling to their moral decision. They will say for instance, "It is immoral and wrong. I don't know why. It just is."
I imagine this happened with the district attorney attempting to prosecute this girl.
The DA: "Sexual pictures of a 13 year-old girl! I am outraged. The man responsible for these nude images must be punished."
Colleague: "Actually, there is only one picture and it was only from the waist up. And she was wearing a bra."
The DA: "We must punish these young boys for their sexual perversion and disrespect of these young ladies."
Colleague: "Actually, the picture was taken by some female friends of hers at a slumber party."
The DA: "How dare those young girls allow themselves to be photographed in bras! They must be punished!"
Colleague: "It is a bra, girls that age wear bikinis to the beach and few people think twice. It is sort of the same thing. Why would they object? It isn't like they thought the images would get out."
The DA: "Well, grrr. It is still wrong. I just know it is. Girls shouldn't do this."
In most cases, maybe it does not so much matter if people "decide" what is right or wrong based on a gut level feeling. Nor, does it matter that these judgments persist even when people cannot come up with a good reason why they think something is right or wrong.
But in the case of this 15 year old girl, it does matter. If I am right about the DA's moral reasoning (even half right), then it leads to a 15 year-old girl being placed in the same category as rapists and pedophiles. And not to be forgotten, it leads to much suffering and pain for her and her loved ones.
So maybe we should all stop and think about why we believe something is right or wrong. And if we do not have a solid reason beyond, "it just is," maybe we can reconsider. Or we can keep grouping Marissa Miller with rapists and pedophiles.
