Bones: The Plain in the Prodigy

I tuned in at about 15 minutes after the episode started. It's not the mystery that is devolutionary, but rather the subplot.

Dr. Camille Saroyan, an African American woman and director of the Forensic Division - and thus the boss of everyone, including Bones, has adopted a teenaged African-American girl.

In this episode, Cam is worried that her daughter is having sex.

Instead of approaching the matter in a calm, cool manner, the scriptwriter has Cam blurt out the question awkwardly and stupidly while the girl is talking to her about something else entirely.

The girl replies, "It's none of your business."

Cam replies, "Yes it is, I'm your legal guardian."

Then she babbles on and on about the importance of sex until the girl just ups and leaves.

I found this scene so annoying on several levels.

First of course is the fact that 75% of African-American children are born out of wedlock, so Cam is right to be concerned. So parents do need to have "the talk" with them. (While most black kids are born out of wedlock today, caucasian girls have the highest percentage of out of wedlock births right now - they're catching up. And supposedly, according to some study, these girls actually did not believe they could get pregnant "their first time" and apparently also didn't know that condoms protected them from AIDS, and venereal diseases.)

Anyway, the point is that this scene was apparently handled for comic relief, as Cam is stressing out about her daughter entering her teenage years and having sex and then becoming an unwed mother. A valid concern, but Cam up until this point has never been stupid enough to act in such a foolish and wrong-headed way. You talk to your daughter in your own home, calmly, maybe after watching a movie featuring a girl having a baby without being married, and segue into it - pointing out how stupid the kid is and so on.

But the way the writers had Cam handle it - it diminished her character and that of every parent. Because if I remember this episode correctly (and I think I have come across it "halfway" a couple of times) the daughter finally reveals that no she is not having sex and is too smart to have unprotected sex. Good for her, but marginalizing Cam as a parent.