Emerz, She's Too Young!

Normally, I wouldn't agree, says Emerz. I've read the Marquis de Sade, remember, says Emerz. He is speaking about a film he has just seen. There's blood on the couch now, says Emerz. It came from my arms. Suddenly everything itched. Well, cheese and crackers, I say. That smarts. And hasn't everyone been there, tormented by that deep, inner static? Lifetime's She's Too Young takes place in a comfortable suburb. Therefore, the high school social caste is determined by promiscuity. It really is a parent's worse nightmare. Funny how those always turn out to be the basketball star's fantasies. Boys will be boys, says Emerz. Except, not this time. This time, a girl named Dawn reports to the school nurse and says that she has a painful sore in her mouth. She is diagnosed with syphilis. Her parents have recently gone through a divorce. She admits to having multiple, multiple partners. She is in ninth grade. Emerz' skin tightens.

Cue the crying parents (including a slumming Marcia Gay Harden), the public health officials, the vacant stares of the actresses as they give dry accounts of sexual acts under the blue lights of the examination room. Cue the moral outcry, the unwavering sensation of immortality that pumps through the hearts of teens everywhere, the overturned bottle after the liquor cabinet gets busted open.

You see, I tell Emerz. They do feel shame. If anyone can recognize it, it's me or Emerz. Mostly Emerz. But by now Emerz is huddled in the corner, shaking and bleeding. And here he was, thinking he was almost ready for children of his own. Everyone's having babies. Just watch MTV. I mean, Emerz, how soon we forget. He's Too Young.

I tell Emerz that it is good to be occasionally reminded of possible consequences. Sometimes that reminder comes from Lifetime television movies. Sometimes a Lifetime television movie is the consequence.