They love it, honest

I’ve not long finished watching a BBC Storyville documentary (see it on iPlayer here) on the scientist D. Carleton Gajdusek (pronounced Guy-du-shek), who won a Nobel prize for work on prion diseases (such as the notorious mad cow disease) who was later convicted of molesting young boys. Gajdusek imported dozens of boys from various Pacific islands and became a “father figure” to many of them; one of them later accused him of molesting him.

The charges were not of rape or other more serious forms of sexual abuse, but they still involved inappropriate sexual contact which was not entirely consensual. He pled guilty and got a 19-month jail term, but was supported by a fair proportion of the world’s scientific community, some of whom were shown on this programme trying to minimise his actions. Interviewed about them himself, he claimed that the boys he slept with jumped into his bed and if they wanted to touch his private parts (he didn’t use that expression), he was not going to stop them. He also fed the line that boys of a certain age basically enjoy being fondled by other males, a defence favoured by paedophiles the world over. He had no idea, and refused to accept, that he had hurt anyone, although some of the boys interviewed by the programme-makers said that he had.

I am rather surprised that he was not robustly challenged over this. I have fairly strong memories of late childhood and early adolescence and I do remember never having any physical attraction to other boys. What I do remember is the fondlings and improper suggestions I got from various older boys at school, and that it made me feel very uncomfortable and intimidated. I’m not saying that boys never indulge in play with each other (although many emphatically don’t), but it does not give older men the right to take advantage. I’m not sure if men who offer the “boys will be boys” defence really believe it themselves or just use it as an excuse, but they must be challenged as it’s simply not true.