Celebrity, Pedophilia, and Ideology in American Culture By Jason ...

While becoming an all-embracing grand narrative itself, Freudian belief led to the dismantling of the belief systems people held dear; with the knowledge that the unconscious mind was always ahead of the conscious mind, how could we ever be certain of anything again? The answer was only through analysis and observation.

Pedophilia is primarily concerned with looking, with observation. In this sense, the pedophile is the most contemporaneous of beings, encapsulating the desire of the age—the love for, and worship of, the image. The pedophile epitomizes the paramount postmodern human being. The pedophile has come to be regarded as the absolute other figure, the alien outsider. But, as we shall see, he/she now supposedly exists and is positioned inside every home. Law enforcement agencies actively promote this notion to enhance vigilance in communities, and this has led to vigilantism. The pedophile is supposedly at the center of the nuclear family, suggesting that all is deception. The pedophile encapsulates the myth of unstoppable Evil that possesses supernatural, often technological, power beyond all attempts at containment. We shall see how child sexual abuse is constructed as a means to salvation by the abuser and the abused. In media culture, victims of child sexual abuse are represented as gaining shamanic supernatural power, authenticity, and status. This is nothing new, with magical rituals involving incest for the enhancement of power taking place in primitive tribal cultures.¹⁶ What is perceived to be the greatest sin is constructed as leading to the greatest revelation, liberation, and salvation.

Pedophilia and child sexual abuse have been glamorized and popularized, glamour having connotations concerned with magic, “to cast a spell.” We cannot escape the supernatural and paranormal nature in debates over pedophilia, child sexual abuse, and child abduction. Clearly, some people have invented stories of child sexual abuse, and we can speculate as to why this might be. But many people who were abused have not spoken out about this heinous crime, and the Catholic Church continues to pay out significant compensation to victims. Child sexual abuse is frequently termed evil and pedophilia is considered to be a disease passed on by the mentally ill. Those considered bad, mad,