When I saw Mrs. Hall’s open letter to the teenage harlots who tempt her teenage sons, my only way to directly relate to the material was through my own experience as a teenage boy. I mostly recall it as a chaotic mixture of hormones and angst, but I feel very fortunate that I had people around me who taught me about self-control, as opposed to trying to impose restrictions on those around me. (Of course, I came of age in a pre-social-media era, so maybe things are significantly different now—I doubt it, though.)

I pondered writing my own response to Mrs. Hall’s letter, addressing my concern about how her overt slut-shaming is harmful to girls, or how her implicit denial of her sons’ moral agency in the presence of braless teen girl selfies is extremely harmful to boys and girls, or the remarkable irony in chastising girls about their own states of undress in the midst of muscle-beach photos of her own beefcakey brood. The only criticism Mrs. Hall seems to have heard and processed involves the beefcake angle, so she re-posted the same piece minus the teenage boy-flesh. I’d posit that the other issues are more important. Enough people have weighed in now that I doubt I can add much more, so here are excerpts from some of my favorite responses: Continue reading →