Shorter Miranda Devine: your wacky non-traditional “family arrangements” enable paedophiles!
The insistence that all family arrangements are equally valid, and equally protective of children, has become a sacred shibboleth. This has been a disaster for children of the underclass.
Make no mistake, a culture which promotes excessive tolerance of family instability is a culture which turns a blind eye to paedophiles such as David Shane Whitby.
You couldn’t make this stuff up. Where to even begin? I could ask just how much she is seriously suggesting we can glean about children being at risk from, what, extra-marital relationships, based on the actions of one hardcore criminal (“the worst paedophile in Australia’s history”) who’ll undoubtedly go to jail for many years; or I could ask what precisely Miranda is saying we should do differently that would’ve actually helped his victims – but the flaws in her fatuous piece are so obvious that the real question isn’t “what was she thinking”, but what was Fairfax thinking in printing it?
52 Comments
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Iain:
Drug and alcohol abuse leads to all kinds of family problems, obviously. But single parents failing to watch over their kids around relative strangers is not the fault of them leading a sexually casual lifestyle … failing to watch over their kids is. Why are you and Miranda trying to frame the issue as the fault of sexual permissiveness, when it’s clearly about a deficit of parental oversight? Can’t you tell the difference?
If you can accept the fact that some of the most conservative nuclear of families have bred paedophiles, and that many single parents with casual relationships still manage to look after their kids perfectly well … why are you going into bat for someone who’s trying to skew the problem in terms of who’s in a stable relationship or not??
Being sexually liberal doesn’t “put kids in harm’s way”, any more than letting them go to scouts or becoming an altar boy does. Can you not understand that many people manage to have fun and be attentively engaged with their child’s safety at the same time?
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#51 LacqueredStudio
While I do get where you are coming from here I don’t think that there is any suggestion that any of the mothers alluded to in Miranda’s piece had any substance abuse problems. But I agree with you that the failure to watch over the children is the primary problem. As I have said before I don’t care nor would I judge any woman badly for wanting to get laid.
Its a mater of priorities LS the “zip-less Fuck” (ref; Erica Jong) mentality that is now altogether too common and has meant that some people have stuffed up priorities and a willingness to take too many shortcuts with their children’s safety all for the sake the transitory validation of casual sex.
Of course I accept that there are evil scumbags in all walks of life and sadly I have even met some (shudder) who have been despicable and manipulative and at the same time somewhat pathetic. Look to my earlier comemnts here and you will see that I happily concede that single parents can and do do a marvellous job of raising their kids, I even know some who don’t let their circumstance get in the way of their love lives BUT they are only worthy of respect it they ensure the safety and emotional security of their children comes before their love lives.
Of course I even know some who do so BUT the ones I know would not think of leaving some bloke that they have only recently met spend any time alone with their kids….
Thanks for such a civil argument BTW
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