By Andy Wright
You are about to watch a political ad whose opening line, delivered with wide-eyed sincerity and a cartoonish shrug, is: “Some people thing I’m a child predator. What is up with that?”
The Yes on Prop 4 campaign (which would require parental notification for minors to obtain abortions) sponsored a YouTube contest in which people crafted commercials advancing their cause. This was the best one.
The makers of this ad picked a suitably creepy looking star and then stuffed him into the universal uniform of sketchy dudes everywhere, the track suit, but that’s where the plausibility ends. “Ok, so I get a couple of them pregnant?” He says of the teenage girls he likes to kick it with, then Seinfelds “What is the big deal?" The Prop 4 people’s argument is that child predators routinely impregnate young girls and then take them for abortions.
Aside from the production values, the truly terrifying thing about this commercial is how well it reflects the attitudes of the pro-life camp. This commercial is about abortion, an issue that most directly affects women, and yet there isn’t a single woman in the entire thing.
The crux of the argument is that men do terrible things to innocent girls and we must circle the wagons around them. And the best way to do that is to restrict access to health services, instead of providing comprehensive sex education or funding programs that teach girls self esteem and good decision-making skills, or even self defense. And that’s because this ad isn’t actually about helping women at all – it’s about advancing the rights of fetuses over those of girls.
As ludicrous as it seems, these poorly cobbled together YouTube videos and one hideous Web site seem to be winning over Californians, as Prop 4 has been pulling ahead in the polls. A recent Public Policy Institute of California poll shows Prop 4 winning 47 percent to 44.
The No on 4 campaign (which calls itself the "Campaign for Teen Safety") is soliciting entrants for its own YouTube contest. Here’s hoping that pro choice advocates can figure out how to get a message about girls and women across without utilizing Barbie Dolls.
