The allure of the wicked
Posted 1 year, 6 months ago at 5:46 pm. 0 comments
The British press is frothing violently at the mouth with the news that two paedophiles, one convicted of downloading over 200 explicit images of children and the other bailed pending sentencing after sexually abusing a teenager, have been allowed to walk free thanks to prison overcrowding. Meanwhile, in the United States of America a 29 year old man successfully convinced school authorities that he was, in fact, twelve - attending seventh grade for several months before discovery.
The judges responsible blame recent Home Office edicts that only the most dangerous criminals should be imprisoned, a move which has reduced the militant-pure to tearing at their hair (or the hair of whichever profession has been confused with paedophiles that day: pediatricians beware) and screaming blue-murder. Frankly, it looks like the nation’s love-hate affair with cases of child abuse has faded; today’s fast-paced and fashion conscious world equates “dangerous” with “sexy”. And therein lies the issue: paedophilia just isn’t sexy any more.
Look, for instance, to Britney Spears. Once she was the poster-child for inappropriate lusts, all pig-tails and slutty school uniforms; now she gurns drunkenly at paparazzi, falling out of cars and generally looking loutish. You can’t blame the perverts for going off her. Even the guy who almost finished seventh grade doesn’t look happy: is this the face of a man ecstatic of all the close-proximity to the hairless?
No, if ever there was a ‘philia in need of rebranding, child molestation is it. I took to the streets to ask paedophiles what they thought could put touching kids back on top of every parents’ hate-list; being unable to identify any didn’t stop me.
I found a nation confused and belligerent. One man, who begged desperately to be left nameless, told me that, before they met, his wife of thirty-two years was once a 14 year old, and that physical relations with her is, he fears, a form of latent paedophilia. Another woman described an incident at a municipal pool where she briefly shared a foot-bath with a much younger girl while leaving the changing rooms; she feels unable to return to those premises for fear of vigilante reprisals.
The overwhelming consensus was that I should put my microphone away and sod off, you unpleasant little git. Difficult to analyse in SPSS, for sure, but if an edgy public is a changeable one then perhaps we’ll see that sudden tide-turn in attitudes once more.
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