Female pedophilia in the (not-so) Innocents and The Infant Kiss

2007-11-17
By

In the wake of actress Deborah Kerr’s death, I put up a blog in which I wrote that I was very affected by her depiction of a tormented governess in the movie The Innocents, a film based on Henry James’s classic novel The Turn of the Screw. I wrote that part of what made The Innocents so creepy was the suggestion that the governess harbors a strong pedophiliac attraction to the 10-year-old boy in her charge.

I put this essay on a film newsgroup and learned that someone was there before I – or perhaps this is just another case of great minds thinking alike. Singer Kate Bush released a song called The Infant Kiss with a video made up of clips from The Innocents. The song and video can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUTkdw4C0XA. The lyrics to The Infant Kiss are at http://www.sing365.com/music/Lyric.nsf/The-infant-kiss-lyrics-Kate-Bush/E9E7D0A7F3CE36C9482569A0002F3478. I think the song and video capture in the most eerie possible way the unwanted but strong sexual feelings an adult woman may have for a male child – and suggest the genuine horror that can come of those feelings.

What do my readers think?

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  • amfortas

    I’d like to see it (and hear Kate Bush) and comment but on my mountain top I have a wood-burning, steam-driven computor linked to the world via a telephone line that has a crank handle and an operator at the other end. Broadband and video are out of the question. Modern Australia! Huh! Try mirrors. I have smoke.

  • JamesH

    In Australia there was an article about mothers who kept breast feeding their children until that child was age 7.

    The reason mothers kept breast feeding is because they ‘enjoyed it’!

    In talking with some midwives, some women refuse to breast fed because they cannot tolerate the stimulation caused by the baby sucking on the nipple.

    So it would seem that mothers who continue to breast feed do enjoy the stimulation of having a school age child sucking on the breast.

  • jackal1994

    Wow, it’s been over 15 years since I’ve heard that song. One of my friends loaned me his kate bush album.

    Talking heads (or the lead singer when he went solo) also has a similar song.

  • http://www.shatterdmen.com/ shatteredmen

    I noticed the Photo Essay on “Men who lost it early” on ABC

    http://www.abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/CelebSnapshots/popup?id=3875170

    I noticed a double standard here.

    http://tinyurl.com/2e9soc

    Particularly disturbing is the way Ike Turner’s first “relationship” at
    age 6 is described as just another romance:

    “Funk and R&B star Ike Turner started his notorious relationship with
    the female gender early. Symons reveals in his book that Turner lost
    his virginity at age 6 “with a middle-aged next-door neighbor named
    Miss Boozie.” After that, Turner married four times and had a roller-
    coaster relationship with R&B legend Tina Turner.”

    In other words, Mr Turner was “raped” by a middle aged person when he was 6…but it is OK because his rapist was FEMALE!

    I wonder how many of the others on this Photo Essay were actually victims of an adult pedophile? Oops…I forgot…pedophiles can only men dirty old men. These women are only helping these minor boys.

    In reality, there are a lot more female pedophiles then most realize but people like John Walsh are only concerned when the perpetrator is a man. If we look at the above. Mr Turner was married four times. From that I would assume that this encounter at the age of six…did effect him negatively.

    Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood, 77, started pleasing the ladies early in life. The “Dirty Harry” and “Unforgiven” star lost his virginity to a “friendly neighbor” at age 14,

    Question…was this “friendly neighbor” 14 or 15? Or was she 30 or 35? If so, it was pedophilia and she should have been arrested because Clint was not “luck”….He was SEXUAL MOLESTED and ABUSED.

    “Die Hard” star Bruce Willis is a favorite of action-movie fans, and apparently, he’s been a favorite of the ladies for a long time. The 52-year-old actor and ex-husband of Demi Moore lost his innocence at age 14, when he was a bellboy at a Holiday Inn. Symons says Willis’ first sexual experience was with a “gorgeous chick” in the laundry room of the hotel.

    Now this could have been someone his own age in which case, it is not the point I am making but if it was an adult woman…then it is.

    Notice in contrast:

    Pryor, who died in 2005, was married seven times to five different women; Symons says he was seduced by a 7-year-old girl and lost his virginity at the age of 5.

    They both were minors and near the same age. This is not showing a double standard. It shows human experimentation although it could have come from both being exposed to sexual behavior by others.

    I contend that any adult that has a sexual encounter with someone as young as these men were should be charged with a sex crime against children regardless of the gender of the victims….or the perpetrator!






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