I used to admire him for his bravery in standing up for gay rights, but found him quite dodgy on other issues these past few years. Thank you for enlightening me further Julie.
Did you see the programme about the murders of gay men in East London where he berated the police for doing nothing (rightly) and then said that if it had been a ‘middle class woman found in the west end’ (or something like that), then the police would have taken action. That opened my eyes to him in that regard.
Hi I used to be part of a youth gay rights organisation run by Tatchell and as well as things like repealing section 28, our main aim at the time, we had the issue of lowering the age of consent to 14 foisted on us as something we were campaigning for. I was never comfortable with this. This puts it into context now.
Often enough, boys are somehow perceived as basically being little men, and men of course can take care of themselves. It could be the same mindset that might help explain why the book Childhood Disrupted only included one male among its six interviewed adult subjects, there presumably being such a small pool of ACE-traumatized men willing to formally tell his own story of childhood abuse.
It might be yet more evidence of a continuing subtle societal take-it-like-a-man mentality, one in which so many men will choose to abstain from ‘complaining’ about their torturous youth, as that is what ‘real men’ do.
Even in this day and age, male victims of sexual harassment, abuse and/or assault are still more hesitant or unlikely than girl victims to report their offenders. They refuse to open up and/or ask for help for fear of being perceived by peers and others as weak or non-masculine.
Perhaps boys tend to believe they’re in some manner externally perceived as basically being little men, and men of course can take care of themselves.
I read a couple years ago a New York Times feature story (“She Was a Big Hit on TikTok. Then a Fan Showed Up With a Gun”, February 19, 2022) written by reporter Elizabeth Williamson who at one point states: “Teen girls have been repeatedly targeted by child predators” on social media.
Why write this when teen boys are also targeted by such predators? Does a collective yet mostly subtle societal mindset still persist, that real men can take care of themselves and boys are basically little men? And if mainstream news-media fail to fully realize this in their journalism, why would the rest of society?
Thank you Julie
I used to admire him for his bravery in standing up for gay rights, but found him quite dodgy on other issues these past few years. Thank you for enlightening me further Julie.
Did you see the programme about the murders of gay men in East London where he berated the police for doing nothing (rightly) and then said that if it had been a ‘middle class woman found in the west end’ (or something like that), then the police would have taken action. That opened my eyes to him in that regard.
Hi I used to be part of a youth gay rights organisation run by Tatchell and as well as things like repealing section 28, our main aim at the time, we had the issue of lowering the age of consent to 14 foisted on us as something we were campaigning for. I was never comfortable with this. This puts it into context now.
Ah . . . Bea Campbell. Never heard enough of nowadays, in the cowardly mainstream.
Often enough, boys are somehow perceived as basically being little men, and men of course can take care of themselves. It could be the same mindset that might help explain why the book Childhood Disrupted only included one male among its six interviewed adult subjects, there presumably being such a small pool of ACE-traumatized men willing to formally tell his own story of childhood abuse.
It might be yet more evidence of a continuing subtle societal take-it-like-a-man mentality, one in which so many men will choose to abstain from ‘complaining’ about their torturous youth, as that is what ‘real men’ do.
Even in this day and age, male victims of sexual harassment, abuse and/or assault are still more hesitant or unlikely than girl victims to report their offenders. They refuse to open up and/or ask for help for fear of being perceived by peers and others as weak or non-masculine.
Perhaps boys tend to believe they’re in some manner externally perceived as basically being little men, and men of course can take care of themselves.
I read a couple years ago a New York Times feature story (“She Was a Big Hit on TikTok. Then a Fan Showed Up With a Gun”, February 19, 2022) written by reporter Elizabeth Williamson who at one point states: “Teen girls have been repeatedly targeted by child predators” on social media.
Why write this when teen boys are also targeted by such predators? Does a collective yet mostly subtle societal mindset still persist, that real men can take care of themselves and boys are basically little men? And if mainstream news-media fail to fully realize this in their journalism, why would the rest of society?
Thank you, Julie! This is important work, and you deserve all our admiration.
Thanks Julie. I have saved those to read later. Hope the word gets around