Well, here we are again - a beloved children's entertainer, disgraced in old age, blah-blah....
No, of course I never liked him. Jake the Peg gave me a creepy sexual feeling when I was 8 or 9 that I knew wasn't quite right. But who can tell, a lot of stuff must have given me the creeps in those days...not just Jimmy Saville and Rolf Harris. I liked the giant koala bear he had on his early shows - mercifully there are no records of young women being molested by men in koala costumes - I thought Two Little Boys was the most mawkish, cynical song I had ever heard and I have steadfastly hated it for my entire life.
I don't think there's anything to say about this. I have already discussed the fact that young women in the 70s were subject to inordinate amounts of sexual harassment from all and sundry (even from woman occasionally - if we count my 1st husband's godmother putting her hand on my thigh under the dining table and pinging my suspender belt).
I am quite interested in the case of his daughter's friend whom he allegedly groomed from her early teens. The interest lies in the fact that part of the problem is that the victim has often felt sexual and emotional gratification from the interest of the perpetrator - and of course feels guilty about this. But if I were writing this as an op-ed piece in a newspaper I would probably not be allowed to say that and be potentially guilty of defamation - so I am not saying this about her of course, but about the situation in general. I often notice a slightly whiney note in the complaints of victims: obviously they are entitled to be whiney...but occasionally it has a sort of tinny ring to it - as though they are protesting too much. It is in that that I sometimes guess that there is some sort of guilt which they are trying to erase. I do feel really sorry for them, and grateful that nothing on these scales happened to me - I cannot imagine how disturbing one's first real kiss would be, if you had previously had Rolf H or Jimmy S lunging for your tonsils in some very unwelcome context. At least Rolf H has not apparently subjected any one with a recently broken limb to his lurid attentions.
No, of course I never liked him. Jake the Peg gave me a creepy sexual feeling when I was 8 or 9 that I knew wasn't quite right. But who can tell, a lot of stuff must have given me the creeps in those days...not just Jimmy Saville and Rolf Harris. I liked the giant koala bear he had on his early shows - mercifully there are no records of young women being molested by men in koala costumes - I thought Two Little Boys was the most mawkish, cynical song I had ever heard and I have steadfastly hated it for my entire life.
I don't think there's anything to say about this. I have already discussed the fact that young women in the 70s were subject to inordinate amounts of sexual harassment from all and sundry (even from woman occasionally - if we count my 1st husband's godmother putting her hand on my thigh under the dining table and pinging my suspender belt).
I am quite interested in the case of his daughter's friend whom he allegedly groomed from her early teens. The interest lies in the fact that part of the problem is that the victim has often felt sexual and emotional gratification from the interest of the perpetrator - and of course feels guilty about this. But if I were writing this as an op-ed piece in a newspaper I would probably not be allowed to say that and be potentially guilty of defamation - so I am not saying this about her of course, but about the situation in general. I often notice a slightly whiney note in the complaints of victims: obviously they are entitled to be whiney...but occasionally it has a sort of tinny ring to it - as though they are protesting too much. It is in that that I sometimes guess that there is some sort of guilt which they are trying to erase. I do feel really sorry for them, and grateful that nothing on these scales happened to me - I cannot imagine how disturbing one's first real kiss would be, if you had previously had Rolf H or Jimmy S lunging for your tonsils in some very unwelcome context. At least Rolf H has not apparently subjected any one with a recently broken limb to his lurid attentions.
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