Politics Re: The Media and Mark Foley
posted by on October 13 at 11:51 AM
Oops. I didn’t realize (as Dan’s pointed out) that Mark Foley was asked repeatedly by reporters if he was gay, and always denied it. That obviously makes the job of reporting on his homosexuality quite a bit more difficult—but not impossible.
Anyway, while I’m on the topic of things Dan might set me straight on later, here’s something else about the Foley scandal that, at least to me, has echoes with the Jim West scandal. It’s a tricky thing to delve into because it risks helping the religious right push its false contention that all gay men are pedophiles, so before the Jim West echoes, first a statement of what should be obvious:
All gay men are not pedophiles. If we assume that pedophilia is a relatively rare phenomenon spread evenly throughout the population, then sure, it’s more than likely that some small percentage of gay men are pedophiles. But some small percentage of straight men are pehophiles, too. And since there are way more straight men than gay men, common sense would suggest that the religious right should reverse course and focus far more of it’s anti-pedophilia efforts on straight men. I await the press release from Focus on the Family…
In the meantime, it’s also worth pointing out that there is a difference between pedophilia and pederasty (as the term is currently understood in America). Based on the evidence so far, it seems that Mark Foley was a pederast, not a pedophile — he liked teenage boys on the cusp of adulthood, not pre-pubescent boys.
Here’s the echo: If you think of him as a pederast, Foley is similar to West, who was outed when the Spokesman Review hired an investigator to pose in a gay internet chatroom as young man about to turn 18. After West’s death earlier this year, I wrote:
To read the Spokesman-Review’s transcripts of West trolling the gay internet chatrooms is to read a case study in the tortured psyche of a closet case. West, who graduated from Spokane’s Lewis and Clark High School in 1969, the same year that the modern gay-rights movement began in New York, returns repeatedly in his chats to stories of a self-consciously hesitant attraction to men in high school. It was a time when West dated girls, he wrote, “because I was expected to.” West also wrote repeatedly, and fondly, about sex with a male fraternity member in college. Explaining why, as a middle-aged man, he was now chatting with young men on the verge of coming out, he responded simply: “I like youth.” Perhaps he liked remembering a time before he had committed so firmly to a life in the closet.
This conjecture is just that—a conjecture. But it’s not hard to see why in certain people pederasty would be a natural outcome not of their homosexuality, but of their life in the homosexual closet.
Perhaps, for certain older gay men like West and Foley, their deep regret at not having acted on their homosexual desires in their youth—coupled with their realization that if they were 17 or 18 now and in the right community, they probably could act on those desires—drives them first to fantasize about what might have been, and then to try to live out that fantasy through a combination of instant messaging and abuse of power.
Let us also bring into the discussion the word "ephebophilia," which is perhaps the more precise term for Foley's condition. "Pederasty" is broad term that is manifested, according to Wikipedia, as "spiritual or materialistic, lawful or criminal, loving or commercial, compassionate or abusive." Pederasty, according to some researchers, falls under the umbrella of "age-structured homosexuality," while ephebophilia is sexual preference separate from homosexuality.
To me, the issues of pedophilia/pederasty and/or homosexuality in this case are completely secondary to the issue of whether or not he was abusing his position by using perceived or actual authority to obtain sexual favors, and the subsequent cover-up. Those two things are clearly violations of congressional ethics (which seems to be more and more an oxymoron).
I was shocked to learn in Eli's article this week that Tom Foley was involved in a sex scandal...
Me too! It's been fixed online.
So what explains straight men who pursue underage girls? I guess I'm a little skeptical. In our society, it's not unusual for adult men to lust after young, nubile teens. The closet doesn't explain why some straight men pursue underage girls.
There is nothing magical about turning 18. If we are honest, most of us will admit that there are some pretty hot 16 & 17 year olds (either gender) running around. Attraction to post-adolescent near-adults is much easier to understand than attraction to pre-pubescent children. It isn't the same thing at all. And yet the media largely seems to lump it all into one lable of pedophilia, which is a gross oversimplification.
Foley's attraction to 16 year olds doesn't bother me so much as his apparent lack of self control, and probable abuse of his position. I might find a 16 year old attractive, but as a responsible middle-aged man, I know better than to try to pursue them. I know that it is an inherently unhealthy relationship for the youth. I know that the only way I could get a 16 year old in bed would be through some sort of friendly coercion, which most rational people know to be wrong. I know that it is wrong to damage a youth's psyche in the pursuit of short term sexual satisfaction. It seems apparent that neither Mark Foley nor Jim West got that lesson.
And it is no longer Foley's emails & IMs that may cause the downfall of the Republicans. It is the cover up. It's always the cover up, not the act, that gets people in trouble.
SDA,
I agree, we need to keep a safe distance from those under 18.
A few years ago, I had a little crush on a guy that worked at the grocery store. I saw him all the time for nearly a year, and we frequently made small talk. I just assumed he was about my age (25ish), and I'd almost worked up the courage to ask him out.
Then one day, I was heading back to my office from my lunch break downtown when I saw him out on a field trip with his high school class!!!!!
As you can imagine, my heart hit the floor. I was so embarrassed, and I'd say that's a socially appropriate reaction. I mean, really, you should have seen this kid. I now know what men mean when they say "Officer, I had no idea..."
So I guess that men who truly are into young adults don't have that reaction, obviously.
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