An abuser hiding in plain sight - theatre director turned out to be a paedophile

[UtopiaPlanitia]

Excellent article by Jonny Best describing how a feted theatre director made use of Queer Theory to subvert safeguarding and to promote paedophilia in his work.

And because this man was viewed as positively subversive and anti-capitalist his work was acclaimed rather than condemned for crossing boundaries.

https://thecritic.co.uk/an-abuser-hiding-in-plain-sight/

That was a fascinating read.

I will take this opportunity to note that I am somewhat bemused by the number of profit-making enterprises that are dubbed 'anti-capitalist'. Usually by the exact founders who turn a profit from said enterprises. (It seems to be a successor to the 'greenwashing' technique, except you don't even have to revamp any packaging to feature a single shade of green.)

Did no-one ask how his dance troupe was anti-capitalist?

I’m glad you found it interesting.

My mind boggles at how bloody upfront he was in starting a dance troupe with naked boys and because he labelled it with the ‘Current Good Things’ labels it was viewed, by the ‘right thinking’ crowd, as a positive endeavour and not seen as highly inappropriate and very suspect.

And I completely agree that the amount of ‘anti-capitalist’ profit making is bemusing to say the least.

I'm reminded of the wee inquest ScotGov had with Creative Scotland about the porno they financed. The man from CS stood up and as good as said the queer Community has no boundaries.

The woman Costa mentioned in the article who worked closely with and was a fan of Chris Goode. Who, when he was exposed, refuses to see where the problem lies. I think it's called the 'no true Scotsman' fallacy.

Bloody hell, and what an excellent article

This was an excellent article thank you for sharing OP.

Fascinating but grim. Good to see Mermaids being noted for employing a paedophile adjacent male.

It's good to see Jonny Best still in the fight. I haven't been paying attention but the last I recall about him was that he withdrew from the resistence against genderism a few years back.

I'm still around, but not as active on social media. Definitely still in the fight though, and trying to be useful where I can.

Jonny, thanks so much for writing such a fantastic article. It was so well researched and it analysed, and placed in context, so much about the subject that the readers really need to know to get their heads around what is happening with queer theory-infused academia/arts.

I'm still around, but not as active on social media. Definitely still in the fight though, and trying to be useful where I can.

Thank you!

Great to see you are still around. Your website has been down for ages.

That's great to hear.

Whatever happened to that other theatre group who wanted to get naked in front of children and had a horrendous website with sexual definitions all over it?

Thr school of sexuality? Yes - I thought of them when I read this.

Another one really pleased to see that you're still active in this fight

Interesting.

It can be very easy to abuse people once you get into a position of power.

It just needs one good person to call out poor behaviour… and others to listen/act.

It’s so bizarre to read all that when you've never been part of that world.

The interview where he acknowledges that he got people cheering on a relationship between a 14 year old and an adult is staggering. But then hard to judge without having seen the work. It obviously seemed more innocent on the surface.

The wholesale exaltation of sinful behaviour and celebration of transgression is an odd phenomenon. I know, when I was young, I wanted to push against boundaries, but then I grew up. The current Peter Panism, where adult men fool themselves that they are still in that stage, while using it as a blatant tool for driving their deviant sexual urges in plain sight is sickening. The stupidity of fawning governments and associated bodies who fund this depravity astonishes me.

Thank you OP for posting and to Jonny for publicizing yet another lauded pervert in plain sight, finally revealed to be exactly what the intelligent and educated woman who post here could probably have predicted.

I hope this disgusting era comes to an end and the UK can go back to lauding people who actually do good in the world or entertain in ways where you don’t have to gaslight yourself as you pretend not to see what’s in plain sight, in order to be part of the so-called elite.

Thank you for the link, will read later

The interview where he acknowledges that he got people cheering on a relationship between a 14 year old and an adult is staggering. But then hard to judge without having seen the work. It obviously seemed more innocent on the surface.

Reading that, I felt it was like the parents in the kindergarten piece who didn't speak up and ended up second-guessing themselves that they weren't progressive enough to understand the sex liberation of young children.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/the-sexual-revolution-and-children-how-the-left-took-things-too-far-a-702679.html

That, and a Bindel piece that covered what had happened in Islington in the 1980s to facilitate child abuse (beyond removal of safeguarding into encouragement of removal):

https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/may-2023/beware-the-false-victim/

Thank you, OP and Jonny Best. It can be hard to unpick what has happened when you're looking in hindsight so I appreciate the context.

This is a really important point. Did it seem more innocent on the surface or have the "predators" (for want of a better word) successfully lowered some people's boundaries to the extent that paedophilia / the unacceptable are being normalised. Two differing examples:
The recent extensive C of E cover up that went right to the very top where John Smyth was able to use religious gatherings to repeatedly viciously beat teenage boys since the late 1970s & none of the senior clerics who knew about this bothered to ensure that he was stopped and prosecuted by the police. They evidently didn't see his appalling abuse as serious enough to go the extra mile and insist it was dealt with.

Take a look at child safeguarding discussions. The NSPCC framing the objectors to their rubber fetish employee wanking in the work place toilets as bigots and homophobes. When we discuss safeguarding childrenon here, note how when an adult transactivist contributes, they never refer to children but always use the language of adults - people, folk etc. This happens everywhere, not just on Mumsnet.

The abuse of children is repeatedly downgraded in favour of the rights of adults to perform fetishes, behave in an age appropriate way and get unfettered access to children and we still see the adults speaking up framed as as the bigots, repressive etc.

It doesn't just happen in the Arts - it's bloody everywhere.

No, if wasn't that, I had to Google it. It was the Family Sex Show:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-61077514.amp

Anyway, when I saw the words “theatre” and “hiding in plain sight” I thought of this. I wonder what the purveyors of this are up to these days 🤨

Aug 2024 Times piece:

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/arts/article/creator-defends-her-sex-education-show-for-children-2ztwgqbmt

archive version: https://archive.is/KpqNA

That is an excellent post. The one thing I'd take issue with is the word 'sinful', Most sin isn't sexual, and it happens all the time - and gets exalted - greed, pride, 'envy, hatred, malice and all uncharitableness' are there all the time. I fight against it in myself, but if you saw the way some people drive round my local market town you might understand why I fall from grace from time to time. To say nothing of the things they do with their shopping trolleys.

There I go again, sinning.

But it is worrying that self-control, as opposed to self-expression, seems to be being lost as a concept of something not only better for society, but also likely to lead to more contentment in life.