Media liberals spent much of 2022 claiming the term "groomer" was part of a "reckless deployment of a highly charged accusation," in the words of one Washington Post columnist. There’s nothing like a major corporate scandal involving children and bondage teddy bears to put that in perspective.
Yes, I just wrote bondage teddy bears. Sane readers would gladly go their whole lives without reading that combination involving children. That was before fashion company Balenciaga released advertisements involving cute kids holding teddy bear handbags dressed for a BDSM party, not a child’s tea party.
But don’t take my word for it. Here’s how The New York Times described the ads, tying outrage over them to "QAnon." It said the ads, "featured six children clutching destroyed teddy bear handbags." The Times added, "The fluffy bears had black eyes, fishnet tops and leather harnesses."
The Times damned criticism as only it can, "the story was picked up across right-leaning media outlets."
BALENCIAGA SPARKS OUTRAGE OVER ‘DEPRAVED’ AD CAMPAIGN WITH TODDLERS, TEDDY BEARS IN BONDAGE
Conservatives pounce. How dare those evil right-wingers be upset? It took three Times staffers to concoct that narrative.
The scandal resulted in a bunch of finger-pointing from the company whose corporate owner Kering also owns Gucci and Saint Laurent. Except this wasn’t a one-time incident. A separate ad included "an image of a Supreme Court opinion in a child pornography case as a prop promoting a handbag." Balenciaga is suing over that ad but took full blame for the BDSM bears.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Only it wasn’t just Balenciaga. Sexualizing children and defending those who do so has become popular with news, entertainment and advertising media.
BALENCIAGA APOLOGIZES FOR CHILD ABUSE THEMES IN DUAL PHOTOSHOOTS
The Washington Post ran a review on November 23, headlined, "‘Downstate’ is a play about pedophiles. It’s also brilliant."
Post chief drama critic Peter Marks told readers to, "Take a deep breath and try to ruminate calmly on the position playwright Bruce Norris takes in his scintillating new play, ‘Downstate’: that the punishments inflicted on some pedophiles are so harsh and unrelenting as to be inhumane."
The play featured "the predators who’ve completed their prison terms are depicted not as monsters but rather as complicated, troubled souls."
There you go, we aren’t sufficiently sympathetic to people who molest children. They aren't bad people. We are.
News pages are now scarily filled with stories about the sexualization of children. Media defend "all ages" drag shows, sexual transitioning children and sexual books in school libraries.
The legacy media criticize anyone complaining about those topics. The Times ran an op-ed from a woman who had been molested under the headline, "Misusing Words Like ‘Groomer’ Isn’t Just Wrong. It’s Dangerous." She called the use of the term "groomer" an "anti-gay slur," even though sexualizing children is a universal problem.
It is worth noting that her op-ed ran eight years and a little more than a month after The Times ran another op-ed that took pains to clarify "the misconception that pedophilia is the same as child molestation." That headline? "Pedophilia: A Disorder, Not a Crime."
BALENCIAGA PARENT COMPANY CEO, WIFE SALMA HAYEK SILENT ON AD CONTROVERSY INVOLVING CHILDREN, BDSM TEDDY BEARS
USA Today ran a similar news article this past January. According to that, "Not all people who sexually abuse children are pedophiles. Some pedophiles never abuse children, experts say, and some people who sexually abuse children do not sexually prefer them, but use them as a surrogate for an adult partner."
It also mentioned Old Dominion University assistant professor Allyn Walker resigning in November 2021, after describing pedophiles under their new marketing term "minor attracted persons."
All of that is the backdrop to books showing drawings of sex acts being placed in school libraries. Here are a couple of examples:
*"Pentagon's schools infested with shocking pornographic material for military kids: 'Time to send a d*ck pic.’"
*"Michigan parents sue district over 'X-rated' sexually explicit books in school library."
Sadly, I could find dozens more similar headlines. They are all alike. School officials who are shocked that parents don’t want porn in schools or taught to their children. Because too many on the left see nothing wrong with it. Or worse, see it as righteous.
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Just as someone or more likely the plural someones were OK with the Balenciaga ads, until they realized the real world was not.
Creepy and criminal sexualization of children sadly isn’t new. Singer Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13-year-old cousin when he was 22. R&B singer R. Kelly got 30 years for sex trafficking and racketeering charges and was also convicted of child pornography.
That sounds like an improvement. It’s not really. Journalists still defend the all ages drag shows. Times columnist Michelle Goldberg slammed "the right’s dehumanizing language" for daring to criticize this bizarre practice.
Now compare that outrage to how the press still seems woefully uninterested in convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s client list and the famous people who flew on the horrifyingly nicknamed "Lolita Express." Britain’s Prince Andrew, who was sued for allegedly molesting an underage girl on Epstein’s island, settled his lawsuit and is once more forgotten by most of the media.
The legacy press seems determined to either pick the wrong side in these fights or just stay out of the battle entirely. And leftist news outlets (New York Times, for example) think the real problem is daring to complain about sexualizing kids.
