The papers have been full this weekend of reports of a documentary to be aired in the coming days about the late Jimmy Savile and his alleged sexual abuse of young girls. Plural. It looks like the allegations could be the thin end of the wedge, and that many more witnesses or survivors may come forward, and more allegations about him and those close to him will come to light.
As is the tendancy in these situations there has been a fair amount of victim blaming. Why come forward only now? Plenty of accusations that these women are lying, trying to destroy the poor defenceless dead bloke's reputation.
But what is pretty evident from the details already released is that some of the victims did try to speak out. But were silenced. There are allegations of cover-ups at the very highest levels of the BBC among others, and some of the rumours (not, I think covered in the documentary) even touch on other public figures, powerful ones, some who may be alive today.
Some of the girls in the documentary were in care homes or special schools. It has been proven again and again that children raised in these environments - boys and girls - both in the 70s and more recently - are deprived of a voice. They are not listened to. So speaking out against an abuser isn't as easy as it may sound. Any survivor of abuse at any age may find talking about what happened very difficult. For children it is even harder to put into words what has been happening to them. When it comes to actually speaking out against someone in a position of power - a priest, a teacher, a TV presenter, a care worker - it is even more difficult.
We are taught from a young age that grown ups are right about most things. Learning that they aren't - that sometimes our parents get things wrong - us actually a hard milestone to pass. So imagine being abused, getting up the courage to put what has happened into words and then being accused of lying? Punished for it.
It would be nice to say that this kind of thing could never happen now. But it does. Look at what is coming to light in Rochdale. And how many more scandals will come to light in years to come? How many children are hiding terrible secrets, knowing that they wouldn't be believed if they spoke out? Even being led to believe that what is happening to them is normal?
Phrases being thrown around about the Savile case are pretty frightening. "Cover-up". "Common knowledge".
What if someone had listened? Taken their fingers out of their ears? Given children a voice? How about learning from this and making it possible for children to have a voice now? How much abuse could have been stopped? And how much more could be prevented?
I do admire you for tackling the tough subjects on your blog.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, though, it's hard to comment in just a sentence or two, and still get the correct meaning and tone across.
So forgive me for not commenting, but know that I do read your posts and enjoy them (even if I sometimes don't agree) x.
Thanks, that's very sweet. I can cope with not being agreed with :-)
DeleteI listened to James O'Brien from 12-2 today, on LBC 97.3 For anyone interested they do have podcasts.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, most of the show was dedicated to this subject.
He started out at 12 very very cynical about the fact that people left it till now to come forward, when he died in his 80s.
Thankfully there were a lot of brave callers who explained to him their circumstances. He was humbled and gave each and every one of them a decent amount of air time.
I am delighted to say he was a different man by the end of the show and I am so pleased those people called in.
They all had very sad stories indeed.
Liska x
The swing in public opinion this week has benn interesting to follow.
DeleteIt is truly awful - especially as you say, that the most vulnerable children already likely to be dealing with the toughest of backgrounds, are further devalued by being called liars and being ignored. I never suffered any kind of abuse or cruelty as a child, but I do know the sense of injustice that comes when an adult doesn't believe you (only over totally trivial things) - I cannot imaging how damaging to self-esteem it would be to be disbelieved in more serious circumstances. I only hope that in recognising the issue now, these people can find some peace.
ReplyDeleteI haven't really been following the Saville story I admit, but it is pretty awful what seems to be coming out. If these people were being ignored and silenced, then the people who should have listened to them should be held responsible in the absence of Saville himself.
ReplyDeleteIf someone ever hurt my vulnerable child, they'd have me to answer to. And I wouldn't want to be in their shoes if that were the case.
CJ x