This is Child Abuse Porn and as a 75 year old survivor of all kinds of child abuse including sexual I am tired and angry at people who use child abuse to their own personal and financial advantage. Especially in recent times. The Sandy Hook shooter was abused from birth by mother, at Sandy Hook school where he was not just bullied but assaulted several times, At his next school where he was sexually abused by the most notorious pedophile priest in the state. The shooter at Virginia Tech was sexually abused by the head of the fundamentalist church his parents attended and by his parents. The Shooter at Orlando was physically and emotionally abused by his father who is also a homophone. Etc.,etc., etc., Child abuse is a world wide pandemic and it effects everyone. Child Abuse kills
10
If Jesse Green has too much anxiety about the subject of a work of art, he should not review it. This is an extraordinary and sophisticated show that dealt with its difficult subject with incredible grace and sagacity. The "ick' factor is nothing more than anti-intellectual narrowness dressed up as moralism. It is a shame that the future of this important show will be damaged by Green's inner conflict.
2
I haven't seen it so will not judge it until I do.
I'm always amazed at comments like those posted here that condemn books/films/plays/artwork/etc. based on a review or word-of-mouth as opposed to actually seeing and then judging for oneself.
Thank goodness my parents thought me to think independently and come to my own conclusions.
I'm always amazed at comments like those posted here that condemn books/films/plays/artwork/etc. based on a review or word-of-mouth as opposed to actually seeing and then judging for oneself.
Thank goodness my parents thought me to think independently and come to my own conclusions.
4
Finally, a logical person. So many people are quick to jump to conclusions based upon someone's (often faulty) opinions. People should experience the world first-hand.
1
The relentless campaign of the people who wish to normalize the sexual use of children by adults continues, I see.
3
I've seen this show, and it definitely does not try to normalize sexual abuse or pedophilia. Instead, the show intends to raise awareness of an abhorrent practice while being sensitive to the fact that those who participate in it are in some ways themselves victims of a tradition that has been handed down to them. Remember, the world is not black and white, despite what the media, politicians, and religious leaders try to make us believe. This show tackles a very sensitive topic tastefully and reminds us all that the world has endless shades of grey.
1
I read a long, heartbreaking piece by one of these boys, now a grown man living in the US, and a writer. I don't remember the exact country he was from, but it was a Middle Eastern one. Boys who are even slightly effeminate at a very young age in his culture were automatically branded for future selling to homosexual men, a 'discrete' way to let those men have sexual relations. Because homosexuality was forbidden, and men could be killed for being homosexual, they married women and had young boys on the side. The little boys were ostracized by the community, often beaten by other boys. It was tragic, and this man said it was never consensual. The parents, especially fathers, were repulsed by their effeminate boys, assumed they would grow to be homosexuals, and rented them out for sex. This writer's own father was a homosexual with his own rent boy, yet still hated his son for his assumed homosexuality, judged only by a higher voice and sensitivity. In a child... In cultures that vilify and criminalize natural sexual orientation, vile subcultures easily arise as a 'workaround' that the society is willing to turn a blind to. At the same time, we aren't much better in many parts of the US, where it's legal in some states to forcibly marry little girls to make a sexual relationship legal. Gay or hetero, it's still rape if it's non-consensual or with children too young to make a mature decision.
3
It's a story. You might read about it with no problem but as soon as it's put into visual form it's wrong? The envelope is being pushed once more and as long as pedophilia is not being promoted as an okay thing to do I see no problem. The story will speak for it's self, either the people who go see it will get something out of it, or not.
The New York Times cheapens itself with cheap reviews like this one. The paradox is that the subject matter was not taboo until people like this reviewer turned it into one, but having an 'ick' response that seems more redolent of self-loathing than any genuine concern for young people's welfare (16 year old boys kissing 46yo men, that's a problem, though it's legal in a lot of the US?).
In nearly every part of the world, a large percentage of men used to love boys, who if alive today would be "heterosexual". Look far enough into the past and only the minority of men ever had sex with women. Look into the so-called "abuse" studies and you see that in every study of the general population, boys regard their childhood sexual experiences with men predominantly positively. The reverse is true with women looking back at childhood sexual encounters with men - but we're told the mantra that there is no meaningful difference between males and females: billions of sperm per day versus two eggs a month, meaningless, they say!
Human cultures have employed these instictual tendencies in a variety of ways, but the "Afghan" dancing tradition was practiced from Morocco to Turkey to across Central Asia. It is merely a holdout because it's still a brute-force culture in which women prefer to stay at home than work in a poppy field.
Instead of getting into the real issues like these, the reviewer can't get beyond his own questionably-fuelled revulsion.
In nearly every part of the world, a large percentage of men used to love boys, who if alive today would be "heterosexual". Look far enough into the past and only the minority of men ever had sex with women. Look into the so-called "abuse" studies and you see that in every study of the general population, boys regard their childhood sexual experiences with men predominantly positively. The reverse is true with women looking back at childhood sexual encounters with men - but we're told the mantra that there is no meaningful difference between males and females: billions of sperm per day versus two eggs a month, meaningless, they say!
Human cultures have employed these instictual tendencies in a variety of ways, but the "Afghan" dancing tradition was practiced from Morocco to Turkey to across Central Asia. It is merely a holdout because it's still a brute-force culture in which women prefer to stay at home than work in a poppy field.
Instead of getting into the real issues like these, the reviewer can't get beyond his own questionably-fuelled revulsion.
3
Oh.....my....god!! And here I was sure I'd seen everything!
5
The "creative team" is not using art as an excuse to skirt the issue, they are using it to to justify and normalize this behaviour and make us comfortable with these formerly unacceptable practices.
13
I hadn't heard of Kid Victory until I read this review, but why are there multiple musicals about pedophelia? This sounds like, rather than tackling an issue *through* art, we're using art as an excuse to skirt the issue.
7
After the Taliban took over in 1996, they declared bacha bazi to be homosexual activity and, since homosexuality is incompatible with Sharia law, they imposed the death penalty. It's likely that in most cases, it is consensual between the boy and the adult, but the western conservative media portray it as "rape," which implies that the boys aren't adults and therefore cannot consent to it. Some of the drawings and photos of the boys indicate that many or most of them are probably gay and therefore willingly participate in the activity.
2
Every 10 yr old wants to be removed from his family to become a sex worker? Consensual?
24
I am sure this production has high theatrical values, but the subject matter nauseates me. Rape of innocent children is rape.
17
Yes, misuse of innocent children is rape, but sex with young boys is unfortunately common is many places in the world. While culturally it is part and parcel in society--usually partly hidden--in some Muslim countries, young boys are commonly passed around in other countries as well. It is not unusual to suggest that this is a "gay thing", but most criminal evidence suggests that the phenomena is to be found in all societies in the world and all levels of society--married and unmarried. The issue has been lately publically exposed in the sexual abuse of boys by priests in the Catholic Church worldwide that continues to plague that religious organization.
While debate continues as to the practice in the classical Greek world, it was nevertheless was in part a culturally established matter in ancient Greece. It is/was practiced culturally in some South Pacific island communities. Will exposing this reality result in ending such a practice? Likely not, and such an answer is not a justification for its continuance of this reality.
While debate continues as to the practice in the classical Greek world, it was nevertheless was in part a culturally established matter in ancient Greece. It is/was practiced culturally in some South Pacific island communities. Will exposing this reality result in ending such a practice? Likely not, and such an answer is not a justification for its continuance of this reality.
I agree. I'm curious: What do readers here think would happen if Trump read a plot synopsis of this play to Congress, or in a TV press conference, and then said, "This is why I want to close the NEA. American taxpayers should not have to subsidize an art form that produces work like this."
Forget that the NEA, likely had nothing to do with this. What do people think would happen if Trump did that?
Personally, I think it would end arts funding immediately. Thank goodness the GOP pays no attention to the arts.
Forget that the NEA, likely had nothing to do with this. What do people think would happen if Trump did that?
Personally, I think it would end arts funding immediately. Thank goodness the GOP pays no attention to the arts.
1
Give it a few more years. No one will raise an eyebrow.
5
I doubt that. I don't know too many parents who want their minor children sold into sexual slavery to sexually-twisted deviates.
Children who grow up to be gay adults should be able to choose their own sexual partners when they are genuinely old enough to make a mature decision, not to be involuntarily forced into a relationship with an adult who has enough money to purchase an innocent child to be used as a sex toy.
Children who grow up to be gay adults should be able to choose their own sexual partners when they are genuinely old enough to make a mature decision, not to be involuntarily forced into a relationship with an adult who has enough money to purchase an innocent child to be used as a sex toy.
7