Foley's Follies

Kelly's post about babies as property, Tim's post about anti-abortion protestors re-presenting the absence of bodies, and Peter's posts with me about children and coporal punishment collide for me in the past couple of weeks about the current political scandal of Congressman Mark Foley and his abuse of power with his young male interns. Of course, it is improper for a boss to abuse his/her status over an employee; but, many facets of this scandal seem to be telling about our impressions of bodies today. To raise just two:

First, all of Foley's interns had to be at least 16 (Lewinsky, by comparison, was 22). As Katha Pollit points out on commondreams.org, 16 is the legal age of consent in Washington (and most states); so, despite most media covereage, Foley is NOT a child abuser. Since the US is one of five countries in the world where it is legal to place a 16 year old on death row--2% of our death row population in 2004--calls to "protect the children" sound disingenuous to me. Sadly, I have not assigned a book on children's bodies in my seminar; so, I'm hoping some of you reading this blog will have scholarly readings to recommend about these rhetorical constructions of children's bodies, esp. the ways we simultaneously romanticize and demonize them. One I could suggest, though less focused on bodies per se, is Lawrence Grossberg's Caught in the Crossfire: Kids, Politics, and America's Future.

Second, although I assume I'm preaching to the converted here: despite ongoing media coverage of Foley's sexuality, most child abusers are straight men. For a great essay including stats on this, read Carol Norris' "The Radical Right, the Myth of the Gay Child Abuser, and You" (also on commondreams.org). The homophobia of the mainstream media is only matched by their ongoing ineptitude at actually undertaking investigative reporting. This is an old myth; but, does anyone have any insights to why this inaccurate stereotype of gay man persists today in the new millennium? Why do you think it continues to have rhetorical traction, esp. in terms of what mainstream culture apparently is willing to believe about gay bodies?