Madison was partially right

She's a minor, living in her father's home, using his utilities and eating his food, meaning she has no power until she has her own place and a job.

She does have power though. It doesn't matter if a teenager is a "minor" living in her dad's house, using his facilities, ect, a teenager does have power. Teenagers need to learn to be resourceful and use what they've got. A teenager can just "walk out the door" or go out with boys, or do whatever and the only way you can stop them is physically, the same way you would stop a toddler from running across the street, playing with the stove, ect. Of course, a teenager is much bigger than a toddler so stopping them physically will not be an option, therefore teenagers do have power to date, go out, ect if they want to.

My argument is valid. Blackmailing can only go so far. Lots of teenagers would much rather go on dates than go on class trips, get driven to the mall, ect. Besides, Lots of teenagers have girlfriends and boyfriends that their parents don't even know about. Threatening people such as a teenager's friends can get you in trouble with the law, "parenting" is not an excuse that will get you off the hook. As for allowance, lots of teenagers have jobs where they make their own money.

As for home internet connection, if you can't have that you can always get on the internet at school or at places such as your local library. You have to be resourceful and use what you can, just like Frederick Douglass was resourceful.

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In this case I know that my "theory" is very realistic from my own experience. From what I've both seen and done.

yes, madison had the ability to date even though her dad forbid it, but that was wrong of her. she is a minor and therefore, it is the responsibility of her parents to decide what she can and cannot do. if they tell her she is not allowed to date, she should respect them enough to not date. sneaking around and dating anyway just makes her a brat.

>>"yes, madison had the ability to date even though her dad forbid it, but that was wrong of her. she is a minor and therefore, it is the responsibility of her parents to decide what she can and cannot do."

Right so therefor if her parents decide she can't breathe then she shouldn't breathe, according to what you said.

It doesn't matter if shes a, "minor," (which is a derogatory term) she can "relieve" her parents of the responsibility to decide what she can and cannot do.

>>"if they tell her she is not allowed to date, she should respect them enough to not date."

She is respecting them. Whether or not her dad says she can date, she is not disrespecting him if she dates anyway because shes only doing it to herself, shes not doing anything to her dad. If Madison were to somehow control whether or not her dad dated, THEN she would be disrespecting him, but since she is only making that choice for herself, not for her dad, she is not disrespecting him.

>>"sneaking around and dating anyway just makes her a brat."

I agree that sneaking around and dating is not the best choice. The best choice is to do what Madison did, to date openly without hiding it from her dad or anybody else. After all, Madison should be able to date and not have to hide it and thats what she did. In the movie her dad knew she was going with that sailor on leave. Sneaking around is bad because you should stand up for what you're doing and what you believe in, not hide it. Still, sneaking around would've been better than not dating at all. But, as I said, Madison made the best choice by dating openly.

When Susan B. Anthony put her vote in the ballot box back when women weren't allowed to vote, she did so openly. She did not sneak in at night and put in her vote, she put it in and everybody saw her do it because she was standing up for what she was doing. For that I applaud her just like I applaud Madison.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ "1. her parents telling her not to breathe would be illegal because it would be child abuse. that's very different than telling her not to date."
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Trying to control whether or not a teenager dates is abuse, its a personal private matter and none of the parent's business.


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2. "minor" is only derogatory if it is used that way. i am only using it by definition, not to lessen her value in any way, therefore, in this case, it is not derogatory.
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It is derogatory when used to limit a person and what they can do. It is absurd to say the instant somebody reaches a magical age, 18 or whatever, that they are all of a sudden "grown up" and they aren't grown up at all before they reach it.


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3. no, she cannot "relieve" her parents of that responsibility. there are certain decisions she's not old enough to make.
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Yes she can. She can relieve her parents of that responsibility by simply making the decisions anyway, whether she's old enough to or not.


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4. it is disrespectful to disobey your parents whether or not your decision affects them directly.
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A personal decision for myself such as whether or not I date would not affect my parents directly or indirectly, it would only affect me. Therefore I would not be disrespecting my parents. I would be making a decision for myself and not doing anything to my parents. For me to be disrespecting my parents I would have to make a decision for them that they didn't want.


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5. the best thing for madison to do would have been to discuss the issue with her father maturely. dating when she was told not to was wrong.
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The only thing Madison would need to say to her dad in such a discussion would be that it was her choice to date not her dads and that she would date whether her dad wanted her to or not and that there was nothing he could do about it.

As for it being wrong for her to date when told not to, prove to me its wrong.


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6. men and women both have the right to vote. men and women both have the right to date. minors do not have the right to vote and the state does not give them the right to date either. that decision is up to their parents. susan was fighting for equality between the sexes. madison was disobeying her father. if she was an adult and thought a law was unfair, that would be different. but she is a minor and her parents have every right to tell her what to do [as long as they do not abuse her or tell her to break the law.]
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There is no law that says "minors," people under 18 or whatever, can't date. For somebody under 18 or some other age to date, they are not breaking the law. There is no law that says you have to be a certain age to date, therefore "minors" do have the right to date. For a "minor" to date whether their parents want them to or not, they are not breaking the law.

As for women having the right to vote, they did not have such a right by law back when Susan voted. As much as Madison was disobeying her father Susan was disobeying the law. Susan obviously thought the law that said women couldn't vote was unfair and she openly broke it. Madison thought her father was being unfair and she openly dated anyway. Susan could've perhaps talked it over with the lawmakers, about how she thought the law was unfair, and protested against it, but without breaking it. Instead Susan went and broke the unfair law and for that I applaud her, just like I applaud Madison for openly dating.

As for Madison's parents having every right to tell her what to do, sure they do, her parents have freedom of speech, they can tell Madison what to do all they want, doesn't mean she'll do it.

Also, as I pointed out before, I don't know where you got the idea that Madison snuck around about dating. Her dad was well aware that she was dating that sailor guy on leave and Madison knew that he knew.


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my parents did not allow me to date at 15 and i don't plan on allowing any of my children to date at that age. at 15 you can't even drive anywhere unless your date is 16 or older. you're young. you're in high school. you don't need a boyfriend. they're unnecessary heartache. stay friends until you're older.
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If you didn't date at 15 then you missed the boat and all the dating in the world now won't change the fact that you didn't date at 15. With your parents not allowing you to date at 15, you've missed the opportunity to date anyway. As for driving, you don't need to drive to date, you could take the bus or even walk, depending on where you're going. Besides, to have a girlfriend/boyfriend you don't have to necessarily go anywhere with that person, for somebody to be your girlfriend or boyfriend, why does it matter where you go, or don't go, with that person? At 15 you are young and you will only be young once so you need to take advantage of it while you still can. You will not get much out of dating if you wait till you're old and decrepit before you start. Its important to start during the young teenage years. High school is a dating service. If you start dating when you're 30 or whenever, all the dating in the world at that point wont change the fact that you didn't date when you were younger such as when you were 15.

I decide for myself whether or not I need a girlfriend/boyfriend and if I want to take the chance of having heartache thats my choice, after all its my heart, make sense? Hopefully even you can understand that. If you didn't date anyway at 15 then, as I said, you missed the boat. Hopefully your children wont make the same mistake.