Teen Pregnancy Satire Sparks 'Class War'
Town parade featured phallus and condoms to satirize Gloucester pregnancies
July 7, 2008— -- Was it "class war" or just classless? That's the question residents of Beverly Farms, Mass., have been debating since their traditional Fourth of July parade turned into a bawdy procession mocking a group of pregnant high school girls from a neighboring town.
The village of Beverly Farms' annual Parade of Horribles has for 150 years invited residents to build floats that satirize current events or poke fun at politicians and celebrities. But when residents of the tiny village decided this year to lampoon 17 girls from a high school in nearby Gloucester, the mayor of that town called foul.
"The City of Gloucester is deeply offended by certain individuals trivializing and making a mockery of teenage pregnancy, which, unfortunately, is a national problem that we as a society must confront," Mayor Carolyn Kirk said in a statement Monday, after learning about parade floats that included a giant phallus that sprayed the crowd with water and from which people threw condoms and candy.
Video of the event posted in the Internet shows a number of homemade floats with signs including: "Knock 'Em Up High Where Expectations Are Low -- Gloucester, MA" and "We Didn't Wear a Rubber, Now We're Stuck Cooking Supper."
On one float, young women or girls who appear to be not much older than the Gloucester High School teens stuffed balls in their shirts to appear pregnant and danced suggestively to a hip-hop song behind a banner that read "Baby Shower."
The Gloucester teens made worldwide headlines last month when it was revealed that 17 girls at the same school had become pregnant at the same time. The school's principal and the mayor gave conflicting media accounts about whether the girls had intentionally planned a "pregnancy pact" or whether the incidents were coincidental.
Over the weekend Kirk told the Boston Herald that the parade pitted the rich village of Beverly Farms against the people of Gloucester, a blue-collar fishing village.
"It basically triggers a class war between this well-to-do enclave and a working-class city," she said.
