The dark side of sex scandals

Here we go again, those patterns which rapidly develop in the world of news. We have opined in the past about the lamentable passing of the good old, titillating sex scandal.
The ordinary, or garden variety sex scandal should have had it’s day, but still raises its head from time to time. The big difference recently is the level of ‘exploitative’ sex being reported.
We can toss UK Deputy PM’s fling with his secretary into the garden variety.
Let’s face it, a minister of the crown having it off with a secretary, in his office with the door open, is delightfully salacious, but hardly earth shattering.
Unless his boss is the beleaguered Tony Blair, and it represents just one more scandal on a growing heap, which shows a collective government losing the discipline we expect of our leaderships.
Even the Connecticut state official who used kickbacks from her role as head of a children’s welfare agency to carry on her steamy love affair is pretty much passé. Oh, it is salacious enough, the thought of all that horizontal tango in illicitly acquired, luxury hotel rooms.
Of far more concern are the exploitative sex scandals surfacing.
Let’s not forget god old flyboy and superhero Randy ‘Duke’ Cunningham either. Everyone thought he was just greedy for money and property. Now there are revelation that he was even willing to take his bribes and kickbacks in the form of prostitutes. The only word I can conjure for Duke is pathetic!
ISRAEL
There is hardly anything titillating about an 11 year old Israeli girl having sex with dozens of soldiers at an air base. The only aspect of humour is that the soldiers were able to convince themselves that this child was actually sixteen years old. That sounds just as bad to me, but then I’m no randy young soldier.
The military men are facing statutory rape charges, which translates as having sex with a minor. They might also be penalized for lacking good sense, but I doubt it. The girl, it seems, was willing enough. It is her assertion that it was not rape because she was willing, as no doubt were the uniformed blockheads.
Just remember though, the Israelis are putting powerful weapons into the hands of these soldiers, and trusting their judgment under pressure. If the pressure on their trousers can’t be controlled the Israeli military might just find a few more serious shortcomings in the future.
INDIA
AS much as some like to perceive India as a backward, third world country, it is in fact an old culture, of some note in the scheme of things. Of course they do have a different take on sexual proprieties than some. The treatment of women as objects, despite some notable female leaders, is an enduring stain on the country.
But when authority figures, like former government ministers and serving police are organizing child prostitution rings, something is seriously amiss.
Apparently that is what has occurred in the northern Kashmir Jammu region. “A 30-second pornographic CD, made recently in Srinagar, created a furore as two of the girls allegedly blackmailed and lured into prostitution claimed that some top politicians and police officials were involved in the racket.”
It is held that power is an aphrodisiac, but at least Britain’s John Prescott reserved his sexual pleasures for a consenting adult. For community leaders to destroy the lives of children for twisted sexual pleasure is way beyond acceptable in any culture.
USA
Okay, so we know about the racy tendencies of the real power people in the USA, but what is this with the teachers and their students? The latest in a string of predatory teacher’s scandals is currently before the courts.
Pamela Rogers didn’t get the message after she was first arrested for having sex with a 13 year old student. Even on release she continued to contact the boy to continue living out her weird fantasies.
"If they're able to prove this, it would show an incredible lack of judgment," her lawyer says. Wow, that is some commentary. The fact that the problem continues, from well before Rogers fall from grace, and shows signs of continuing, is the real worry.
The teachers are supposed to be the adults, the mature guiding influences. If this were a one off occurrence I could accept the lack of judgment line. This is more indicative of a wider social problem, of a greater number of people simply not maturing beyond their adolescent stage.
There have always been individuals who don’t make the transition to emotional and mental maturity, but the condition does seem to be on the increase.

It is important, when considering the ramifications of sex scandals. Social mores will always have a part to play, but we should be well beyond the kind of double standards preached by the evangelicals and their like.
What happens between normal consenting adults, beyond what has obviously become an entertainment factor, should be the concern of a relatively small circle of people. With people of influence, and I mean real influence not merely personalities, there are more complex inferences.
A politician’s sexual indulgences fantasies might raise questions of judgment, of loyalty and self discipline. Having it off in the office or wherever, is not the crime so much as how their actions reflect their wider abilities to perform their job on our behalf.
But above all, the most criminal aspect of the sex scandal is when any adult yields to their fantasies and risks destroying the life and future of a child. As we have seen time and again, sexual exploitation of children becomes a vicious cycle, with the offended invariably becoming an offender of some kind.