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(tw child sexual abuse)
In 1963 the Berkeley fan community was in crisis. A fan named Walter Breen had sexually abused several children in public. Several fans wanted to ban him from the community and from cons. Other fans said that this was unprecedented and uncalled for.
I think the case is interesting because it demonstrates the change in attitudes towards child abuse. In 1963, and even when I was growing up in the 1980s, child abuse was seen as something children had to be taught to avoid, like they have to learn to avoid being knocked down by a car or bitten by an angry dog. This is a far cry from the (quite proper) modern understanding of it as aggravated rape, and its perpetrators as dangerous criminals.
So if you're wondering how Jimmy Savile and all the other Operation Yewtree people got away with it for so long: that's how. Things are still bad, of course, but they've changed for the better.
An extra point of ghastliness: the Breen memo says that some fans are hoping that Breen will be reformed by his relationship with Marion Zimmer Bradley. She also turned out to be a child molester.
In 1963 the Berkeley fan community was in crisis. A fan named Walter Breen had sexually abused several children in public. Several fans wanted to ban him from the community and from cons. Other fans said that this was unprecedented and uncalled for.
I think the case is interesting because it demonstrates the change in attitudes towards child abuse. In 1963, and even when I was growing up in the 1980s, child abuse was seen as something children had to be taught to avoid, like they have to learn to avoid being knocked down by a car or bitten by an angry dog. This is a far cry from the (quite proper) modern understanding of it as aggravated rape, and its perpetrators as dangerous criminals.
So if you're wondering how Jimmy Savile and all the other Operation Yewtree people got away with it for so long: that's how. Things are still bad, of course, but they've changed for the better.
An extra point of ghastliness: the Breen memo says that some fans are hoping that Breen will be reformed by his relationship with Marion Zimmer Bradley. She also turned out to be a child molester.
