BY Joanna Tokarska-Bakir
The society as a blind, co-molesting mother. Polański as a figurehead. The law, which is supposed to clean up afterwards
“In return for the meaning that society gives to science, science gives society the truth.” (Michael Polanyi)
In return for the meaning that society gives the law, the law gives society order.
Years ago, when Alfred Kinsey’s biography film was in theatres, not one sexology guru said even a single critical word about his views. To question them was completely out of place. The emancipation aspect of Kinsey’s research got the upper hand, surely an indubitable aspect.
Why then do the sexologists keep quiet now, when Roman Polański and the thirteen-year-old are in question? Why don’t they bring up Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female (1953) by A.C. Kinsey et al, quoting page 121:
“If a child were not culturally conditioned, it is doubtful if it would be disturbed by sexual approaches (...) It is difficult to understand why a child, except for its cultural conditioning, should be disturbed at having its genitalia touched, or disturbed at seeing the genitalia of other persons, or disturbed at even more specific sexual contacts. (...) Some of the more experienced students of juvenile problems have come to believe that the emotional reactions of the parents, police officers, and other adults who discover that the child has had such a [sexual] contact, may disturb the child more seriously than the sexual contacts themselves. The current hysteria over sex offenders may very well have serious effects on the ability of many of these children to work out sexual adjustments some years later in their marriages.”
Early sexualisation as a cure-all for life’s worries.
The society as a blind, co-molesting mother.
Polański as a figurehead.
The law, which is supposed to clean up afterwards.
translated by Agnieszka Słodownik
Joanna Tokarska-Bakir, born 1958, cultural anthropologist, essayist, author of Blood Legends. Anthropology of a prejudice (2008) and other works.
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