We’ve been here before
Grooming is not a new phenomenon
From the 2010 piece in Der Spiegel: “In 1969 Schuller, a sociologist, was one of the founders of a Kinderladen in Berlin's Wilmersdorf neighborhood. Like Schuller, the other parents were academics, journalists or university employees -- a decidedly upper middle-class lot. Schuller's two sons, four and five years old at the time, grew up without the customary rules and punishments of a government-run daycare facility.
But the adults were soon divided over the issue of sex. Some were determined to encourage their children to show and touch their genitalia, while the others were horrified by the idea.
"It was never addressed quite that directly, but it was clear that in the end, sex with the two female teachers was considered," says Schuller. "I found it incredibly difficult to take a stance. I felt that what we were trying to do was fundamentally correct, but when it came to this issue, I thought: This is crazy, it just isn't right. But then I felt ashamed of thinking that way. I think many were in the same position."
And of course in the UK, we had PIE, but that was then.
That was then, this is now.
How could I forget the Family Sex Show! Archived here because they wisely took the site down.
In the 90s, I worked with older people, mainly women, to support them to continue living independently. These women all lived in one area of the city and had all grown up in another. During WW2, they all lived within 2 city blocks of each other. There was a group of men who had been miners and because of lung disease couldn't sign up to fight. When mothers went to work in the ship yards and the foundries, they looked after the children and had sexually abused all the girls in the area, from the age of 2 up to teenagers. The Orkney sex abuse case was all over the TV, and these 14 women all told me their stories. A huge burden to bear for them but also for me. After a lot of frustration and little understanding from social work, I managed to get all into counselling. This abuse and the secrecy had blighted their lives for 60 years and affected their marriages and relationships with their own children. It was like a dam bursting when they let it go!
There is nothing new in this world, but you would think by now, we would get it right for victims and potential victims no matter where they are.
Just before he blocked me on Twitter, Joshua Holland of AlterNet sniffed that this was all just repackaged homophobia and no one is actually trying to advance pedophilia with "gender" gibberish. I showed him the queer theory jeopardy video and that was it, my former comrade and generous editor was my ardent foe. One of many who will find out the hard way.