Thursday, April 14, 2005
The presumption of innocence
From the RoundTable blog
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The trial of Michael Jackson, charged with pedophilic activities at his Neverland ranch, grinds on. Some say where there is smoke there is fire. Is he a pedophilic predator, or a benign, albeit somewhat strange, benefactor of youth?
Pedophilia is defined as erotosexual attraction to or love of children, specifically those between 5 years of age and the onset of puberty around 12 or so. Ephebophilia, or teen love, is the attraction to and love of youth who are between puberty and 18 years old. An attraction to and love of infants, up to about 4 years old, is called nepiophilia.
There is also gerontophilia, or the attraction to aged individuals, and probably 20-, 30- and 40-ophilias. These last usually present no problem for our criminal justice system. All are types of chronophilia in which the factor causing erotosexual attraction and love is the specific age range of the subject of attraction.
Chronophilias occur in oppositional pairs or polar opposites, with the chronophile often only desiring to be the age that is found so attractive. Jerry Springer has featured on his TV show adult men who manifest auto-nepiophilia (self-infantilism). They wear baby caps and clothes, curl up in large cribs, want to nurse on bottle or breast and have their wet diapers changed by a caretaker. We find this ridiculous, but for the auto-nepiophile it is a tremendous turn-on.
In many cases, the chronophilias occur in individuals who never act out their paraphilias, or preferences for unusual sexual practices, in overtly erotosexual activities. These people are asexual, sexually inhibited, repressed or self-controlled. For them, there is a dichotomy between the body and the spirit. The attraction is there but it has become sublimated from a nasty corporal sexuality to a pure spiritual appreciation and affection. For these people, it is not acceptable to be sexual, but wonderful to care for and be in love.
Jackson shares his behavioral characteristics with other luminaries in history, namely Lewis Carroll, J.M. Barrie, R.S. Baden-Powell, Mark Twain and Charlie Chaplin. All maintained curiously suspicious affiliations with young people, much as does Jacko.
Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) was an Oxford clergyman, mathematics professor and an "artful" photographer of 6-, 11- and 13-year-old girls (often nude, with their mothers giving permission or being present). While 31 years old, he was in love with and wished to marry 11-year-old Alice P. Liddell, the girl for whom he wrote "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland." He thought, unsuccessfully, that the book would placate Alice's mother, who began to suspect his motives. Some of his photos still exist, and the sultry, waif-like poses of Alice are not what you would expect in an innocent Victorian girl. We may not know his fantasy life, but Carroll apparently never crossed the line into paired erotosexual activity.
Sir James Matthew Barrie, playwright and author of a serialization "Peter Pan and Wendy," wrote these from the stories he told to the five young sons of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. His short marriage was never consummated, as he suffered from impotence, and his wife soon took a lover. There were speculations that he preferred the company of young boys and was a pedophile, but again there was no evidence of this.
What Barrie did in his private time alone we cannot know. Nevertheless, he was a benevolent champion of children and donated his "Peter Pan" copyright and royalties to a children's hospital in London. Johnny Depp recently played the role of Barrie in a semi-biographical-fictional account of his life, "Finding Neverland." Neverland is also the name of Michael Jackson's home.
Lord Robert Stephenson Baden-Powell, British soldier and founder of what became the worldwide Boy Scout movement, was supposedly a repressed homosexual pedophile. He was devoted to the moral and physical development of newly pubescent boys. At his Scout's camp in Epping Forest, he enjoyed watching the boys swim naked, thinking it healthy. He also appreciated photographs of nude boys taken by an old male friend, A.H. Tod.
While glorifying the youthful bodies, the line apparently was not crossed and Lord Baden-Powell remained physically chaste. It is ironic that avowed gays are not now permitted membership in the Boy Scouts of America.
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), the writer of the "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" boyhood adventures, had the curious habit later in life of befriending a dozen young teenage girls in his Aquarium Club. He called the girls his Angelfish, and they were expected to adhere to the rules of membership requiring correspondence and field trips to concert halls, museums, his Redding, Conn., estate and ship cruises to Bermuda. Once the girls reached age 16, they "graduated" out of membership.
Such activity by an older man today would draw suspicion, just as Jacko does with his entertainment of youngsters at his fabulous Neverland ranch.
Charlie Chaplin, the "Little Tramp" so beloved by classic comedy movie fans, was no doubt a cinematic genius, but this was accompanied by a proclivity for his teenage co-stars - usually just under 18. His second marriage was to 16-year-old Lia Grey, whom he had met when she was 12. They had two children.
In May 1943, the 54-year old Chaplin was in a paternity suit brought by a 23-year-old actress, Joan Berry. Two weeks later, his fourth marriage was to 18-year-old Oona O'Neill. For this and other reasons he was then compelled to leave the United States. This marriage lasted 34 years and produced eight children.
In every case of these creative individuals, their attraction to and relationships with youngsters went beyond what we would consider normative. They apparently, in most cases, manifested their chronophilias only as privately experienced affective states and not in overtly erotosexual behaviors. Any evidence of overt harm done to their young friend-companions (except for Chaplin's paternity) is not to be found.
Surely Michael Jackson, like Peter Pan, never grew up and may be manifesting auto-pedophilism: a "Peter-Pan syndrome," namely thinking and acting like the boys to whom he is attracted. I suspect, however, that for Jackson the attraction, friendships and activities are platonic and asexual.
He has stated that the last thing he wants to do is harm his buddies, and he realizes that being in the public eye and so closely scrutinized by staff and others, he cannot "cross the line," even if he were so inclined. He is innocent until proven guilty.
G.F. Pranzarone is a professor of psychology at Roanoke College in Salem.
