A discussion by text message about the BBC’s Jimmy Savile story – which I didn’t watch, though I’d glimpsed enough snippets to be able to say that, whatever else you might think about it, Steve Coogan’s portrayal had been remarkable – led to a more general discussion of BBC Radio One DJs’ questionable sexual mores in the 1970s, about which I commented – sarcastically I grant you – that those DJs seemed to have an inherent inability to say no. This led to me being castigated by the person I was having the discussion with because I apparently hadn’t done enough ‘research’ into the topic to know that (a) the BBC condoned their behaviour, and (b) the DJs in question ‘explained’ that it was the 13-year-old female fans who ‘wouldn’t say no’ and that therefore they, as grown men, had no choice but to have sex with those girls. That this was often unprotected sex, in at least one case while having an STD, and leading in at least one case to what the girl herself described as a ‘traumatic abortion’, was apparently beside the point. What did seem to be the point was that I was ignorant enough not to know that that was the DJs’ explanation, which must of course be accepted without question. I naively assumed that this person was being facetious in stating this. It turned out that I was wrong, which, to me, was a hundred times worse, because it’s crushingly disappointing and almost beyond my comprehension that this particular person would take this stance, effectively siding with every rapist and sexual predator who’s ever blamed their victim, said that ‘she asked for it’, and, oh yes, how could I forget, that she was wearing a mini-skirt, so what did she expect?
If you’re reading this and are feeling at all disgruntled, perhaps you shouldn’t be reading my blogs?
If you’re reading this and are feeling at all disgruntled, perhaps you shouldn’t be reading my blogs?
RSS Feed