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Comic Books To Confront Statutory Rape
Dateline Richmond, VA - March 11, 2007
The Virginia Department of Health has published, and will soon begin distributing, a 'fotonovela' amongst hispanic communities in an attempt to educate the public about statutory rape. The fotonovelas, which are a latino comic book created from pictures of live actors instead of animated cells, are entitled 'Gracias Papi', or 'Thanks Daddy', and are the story of a 14 year old girl named Yaneth who is seduced by an older man. Despite the seductive title, DoH officials insist that Yaneth is not seduced by her father, but rather another man, whom she only refers to as 'Papi'.
"The full working title is, 'Gracias Papi: A fotonovela about a young woman, an older guy and a loving father,'" said Robert Franklin, a male outrach coordinator with the VA DoH, "But really, he's not 'that kind' of loving father.' In reality, it was our goal to incorporate modern phrases, names, and lingo into these comics in order to make them more appealing to adolescent Latinas all around Virginia. So really the title, 'Gracis Papi'; its young, its hip, 'Aye Papi'. It screams Latino culture."
The comics are targetted at Latinas in an attempt to curb the explosive growth in Hispanic teen pregnancy seen from 1990 to present. According to statistics from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy and CNN, the state of Virginia saw a double-digit drop in African-American and Caucasian teen pregnancy during this time. The Latina population, however, saw a rise of 50% during this same period.
"It really is quite disturbing to see numbers like this," said Ohgod Theyrebreeding of the NCPTP, "I'm just grateful that someone is out there trying to address this issue. Its not enough that Latinos are breeding, but to be doing so at such an alarming rate, and so young, is truly frightening."
The bigger issue, however, is not getting women to take responsibility for their reproductive rights, says Franklin, but rather getting older men to stop having sex with teenage girls.
"Getting males to challenge their peers about having sex with teens is hard in any culture...I can't just translate 'isn't she a little young' into Spanish," he explained, "Besides, who amongst us doesn't enjoy the firm, tight teen body? I know that my personal philosophy is that 'if it bleeds, it breeds', but this isn't something we should be publically condoning."
The fotonovelas may get an extra boost in coming weeks, as Marvel Comics has also agreed to work similar themes into their ongoing 'Civil War' storyline.
"Without giving too much away, we will reveal that Captain America was actually shot by The Punisher for seducing Kitty Pryde," divulged one anonymous source, "Also, Cyclops has been a NAMBLA member since 1983."
For WNN this is Grasson Thefield reporting.
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