BishopAccountability.org
	‘how Pedophilia Lost Its Cool’ The New York Times December 17, 2009 http://ideas.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/how-pedophilia-lost-its-cool/ Today’s idea: The priest sex scandals and the Roman Polanski case show a shift in American attitudes against pedophilia, an essay says — after a period in which “some enlightened folk took a considerably more relaxed view of the question of sex with youngsters.” Society | “If there’s a clearer case of good coming out of evil lately, it will take some time to think of one,” writes Mary Eberstadt in the religion journal First Things, in an essay carrying the headline above. She’s referring to what she calls the broad, if not universal, left-right American consensus against pedophilia that solidified in the public furor this fall over the filmmaker Roman Polanski’s rape of a 13-year-old girl many years ago. Central to changing attitudes, she says, were the pedophile priest scandals of recent years, whose victims, once they went public, made clear that “sexual abuse of the young leaves real and lasting scars.” But until recently, exceptions to the taboo against underage sex weren’t unimaginable to some, writes Ms. Eberstadt, citing media examples of “yesterday’s itinerant savoir-faire about sex with minors:” Fourteen years ago, for example, The New Republic published a short piece called “Chickenhawk” … that discussed a short film about the North American Man–Boy Love Association. The piece expressed sympathy for the pederasts and would-be pederasts depicted and echoed them in asking whether the boys weren’t sometimes the predators in man–boy sex. The piece is so damning of itself — so perfectly representative of a time when wondering aloud about “man–boy sex” exacted no penalty from the readers of a major magazine — that one could quote almost any sentence for the desired effect: “It might even be that a budding young stud had the upper hand over the aging, overweight loner,” for example. When it came time this fall to speak about Polanski, however, bloggers for the same magazine seemed to compete over who could most thunderously denounce the confessed child rapist and his apologists. Most important, many were not just attacking the idea of sex with girl minors but with all minors, period. Still, Ms. Eberstadt writes, “there remain prominent salons where pedophilia has not lost its chicness. Witness the louche reaction to the Polanski case emanating from most of Hollywood.” Yet she finds further support for her point about sterner attitudes across the spectrum in a much-noted blog post for The Nation by the leftist feminist Katha Pollitt. Mr. Polanski’s defenders, Ms. Pollitt writes, show “the liberal cultural elite at its preening, fatuous worst. … No wonder Middle America hates them.”
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.