a great idea ...

or perhaps not.

 

I drove from Charm City to NYC tonight, and something the Redhead called to ask prompted a Great Idea.

 

He asked whether my high school had a special uniform for pregnant students, which it did not -- girls just left when they started to show. Apparently one of his current grad school-mates attended a school that made the pregnant scholars wear special jumpers.

 

I asked her, through him, whether the jumpers featured a Scarlet Letter --- yeah, I've read a little American literature in my time.

Because, in a sense, students were rewarded for choosing to abort their fetuses, because they maintained their privacy about whatever bad decisions they've made in their lifetimes and avoided the embarrassing new outfit (as if most Catholic schoolgirl outfits aren't embarrassing at some level).

 

Actually, my school uniform was pretty cute. But I digress.

 

But my real question was: what did the boys have to wear? You know, the studs who put these woman in the predictament of having to wear a special jumper in the first place.

 

'Cause that's my big problem with abstinence-only programs, and stupid pink billboards with pink bandana-wearing young-ish women proclaiming that they're "not going to give up. And I'm not going to give in." ... they're all directed at women.

 

It takes two to tango, right? Not to speak ill of the dead, but why do we allow society to continue rewarding entertainers who say crap like "I see some ladies tonight who should be having my babies ..."

 

So my not-so-good idea: An embarrassing, unflattering garment for men to wear if they impregnate an underage woman. Picture a volumnous pink sweatshirt with a giant B on it, for "bastard" -- referring to the pop, not the newborn. Make'im wear it every time he's out of the house -- and a need to do laundry is not an excuse.

 

Except, I know what would happen. This would backfire. These ugly things would become status symbols. Society does not shame men who make babies before they're ready to be fathers; rather, it's a (perverted) sign of manhood.

 

Those bastards.