Feminists denied the fact that nymphets desired to be sexually active and blamed the nymphet's promiscuity on "dirty old men"; thus, the age-of-consent laws were born near the turn of the nineteenth century.
However, Mary E. Odem shared in Delinquent Daughters: Protecting and Policing Adolescent Female Sexuality in the United States, 1885-1920 that despite the implementation of age of consent laws, the level of teen promiscuity got so bad that during World War I the military had to implement a five-mile radius moral zone around military bases where alcohol and teen prostitution were prohibited. Despite those measures, over the course of the war thousands of young girls were apprehended for illicit activities, prostitution and suspicion of spreading venereal diseases.
On episode eleven of the first season of Shameless, Karen, a high school sophomore, attended a Purity Ball with her father with the idea that Karen would vow to re-purify and remain pure until she got married. As part of the ceremony, the nymphets were asked to share their previous impure activities in front of their fathers.
Patty shared that she let a choir boy touch her breasts through her shirt and bra and that she felt his “rod” touch her leg. After Patty was thanked for her courage to confront her struggles with desire, Karen, in a pure white dress, disclosed the following:
“I started having oral sex at a very young age, maybe 13, with guys around the neighborhood. Three of four at first. Then well, more than three or four. I didn’t have intercourse until the 8th grade. I didn’t like it at first, but then around the 6th time it started to feel good - really good. But I didn’t feel good about it. Umm, there was [sic] a few times where I got high and started experimenting with guys and girls - at the same time. I wouldn’t necessarily call it an orgy, but there were a lot of naked body parts flying around, which felt very good, but kinda bad all at the same time. And then there was the time at Mindy Karlson’s sleepover when we all got in the shower and started soaping each other up. Then her mom walked in and freaked out when she saw Mindy in the shower with a big black strap-on dildo. To which Karen's father interjected: “You whore!”
Karen was so distraught after her father called her a whore in front of the other Purity Ball attendees that she decided to get revenge by creating Daddyz Girl, an online diary, and stream a live teen sex show with her mother's (married) boyfriend.
And on the pilot episode of Shameless, Karen's father caught the teen performing oral sex under the kitchen table while her mother chopped veggies only three feet away.
Thus, Karen's character can be viewed as an example of art imitating life.
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