Is this wrong? I'm just so confused!

Mom Indicted for Hiring Stripper for Teen

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A mother faces criminal charges after she hired a stripper to dance at her 16-year-old son's birthday party. Anette Pharris, 34, has been indicted by a grand jury on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and involving a minor in obscene acts. The boy's father, the stripper and two others also face charges.

"I tried to do something special for my son," Pharris said. "It didn't harm him."

About 10 people under the age of 18 were at the birthday party in September, including minors who were not related to the family, authorities said.

(Hat tip: Joe Gandelman. Check out his comments on this story.)

This no doubt varies from state to state. Around here I'm fairly sure that you have to be 18 to either be a stripper or to view one. However, if the stripper is appearing in a place that serves alcohol, you have to be 21... not because of the stripper, but because of current liquor laws.

Questionable parenting, as Joe described it, no doubt. But... wrong? Well, if it's against the law, then we must accept, at least on the surface, that it's wrong. The article in question, however, is unclear on that point. It's certainly illegal for a sixteen year old to be in a strip club. But do the laws specifically bar them from seeing a stripper in their own home under parental supervision, as questionable as that supervision may be?

There's also a bit of a double standard at work here, and I freely admit that. I know that, at sixteen years of age, I'd have been thrilled at the idea of getting the chance to see a stripper. But I'm a guy thinking of male teenagers. If we reverse the genders and the story had been about an adult male stripper gyrating for a sixteen year old girl, I would react in a very negative fashion and want to give the parents forty lashes.

So... all in all, I suppose I can't pass judgment on this story. I'm too biased in one direction, and too tolerant of the sexual urges of teenage boys. Of course, if you're talking about a hypothetical daughter of mine at the age of sixteen, it would never be an issue. She'd be locked up in a convent until she got married. Yes... I know that's wrong. Too bad. I've got a shotgun, so keep the hell away from her you little pervs.