The Epstein files are back at the center of the news, and there’s a lot to parse. But one of the things that’s been foremost on my mind is how American culture constructs and deconstructs what it means to be a child.
Earlier this week, the actress Valerie Bertinelli posted a picture of herself on Instagram — a cute, smiling photo from 1975, when she was 15 years old. She was sharing that photo, it seems, in response to the controversy that bubbled up after the journalist Megyn Kelly talked about someone’s opinion that Jeffrey Epstein was “not a pedophile” because he liked 15-year-old girls, rather than 8 year olds. Bertinelli captioned her Instagram photo, “I’m FIFTEEN. I’M A CHILD.” Toward the end of the post, she added, “Maybe we should flood the Internet with pictures of all of us at 15? #imfifteen #imachild.” And indeed, numerous people did start sharing photos of themselves at 15, including some current teenagers.
My reaction to this all? Oh no. I think I understand the impulse of Bertinelli and others — the idea that by inundating people with photos of real 15-year-olds, they can emphasize just how young those girls are — that they should be considered the children they are, not “barely legal” adults. But there are some huge flaws with that approach. For one thing, it seems to assume that people who think it’s OK for an adult to sleep with a sophomore in high school just haven’t seen a 15-year-old lately. But more importantly, it relies on a logic that underlies a lot of sexist, racist, and classist categorizations: a version of respectability politics that suggests someone can be deserving (or undeserving) of protection based on the way they look.
Evan Vucci/Associated Press
But the fact is, it doesn’t actually matter what 15-year-olds look like. The laws that protect underage girls from sexual predation are not about appearances — they’re about age. Some 15-year-olds look particularly childlike, while some look particularly mature. That doesn’t matter. They have all lived the same number of years on this planet. That is the reason they are categorized as minors, and vulnerable to the power imbalances that come with being pursued by an adult. That is the reason they are believed to “lack the emotional maturity or legal standing to make informed decisions regarding sexual activity.”
There is a lot of power in public image campaigns. Pictures can convey certain realities, quickly and potently, that are sometimes muddied by too many words. But when we start to depict what “innocent” looks like, we tacitly portray what “guilty” looks like, too. And that is a game that ends with more losers than winners.
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Today on the show, NPR immigration reporter Jasmine Garsd takes us into the dimly lit living rooms of immigrant families — families trying to figure out how to stay safe as they navigate the overwhelming fear of being detained by ICE. These fears have long existed, but for many, they've become stronger and more omnipresent during this Trump administration, with its strong focus on deportation. So parents across the country are finding different ways to exist, protect themselves, and look out for their children.
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If all this weren't enough, I'm also sure to be losing sleep over reports that the U.S. Coast Guard will start categorizing both nooses and swastikas as "potentially divisive symbols," rather than hate symbols, as was previous practice. There's some discrepancy over how this change is being reported, but that won't keep me from worrying about it! This is Code Switch, so you know we'll be keeping our eyes on how that all unfolds. More on that in weeks to come, I imagine.
In the meantime, please send me all of your thoughts, questions, ideas, critiques, and whatever is keeping you up at night. You can respond to this newsletter by emailing CodeSwitch@npr.org.
I'll be out next week for Thanksgiving. But I hope you all know how grateful I am to share this space with you every Friday. See you in December, and until then — be safe.
-Leah Donnella, senior editor
Written by Leah Donnella and editedby Dalia Mortada
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