Florida Gators quarterback Jalen Kitna was
arrested
recently on the shocking charge of allegedly possessing child pornography and was dismissed from the football team. While Kitna is presumed innocent, his story underscores a disturbing problem in America: pedophilia and attempts to normalize it.
One might expect normalizing such vile behavior from child molesters and porn stars. But the fashion industry has been doing its best to make pedophilia socially acceptable at every level of society with scarcely a critical word from the fawning journalists who cover them.
For example, luxury fashion brand Balenciaga has come under fire for glamorizing pedophilia through a new
ad campaign
showing two very young girls holding stuffed teddy bears dressed in bondage gear. Hardly coincidentally, the fashion company had another ad showcasing a luxury handbag resting on papers containing what appears to protest a 2008 Supreme Court ruling on a child pornography case.
For Balenciaga’s ads even to see the light of day, dozens of company creative directors, web designers, and copywriters had to sign off on content that overtly sexualizes children. One might wonder how a luxury fashion brand such as Balenciaga maintains such a low bar for marketing decisions.
THE CULTURAL IGNORANCE OF THE WAR ON GENDERED LANGUAGE
Sadly, fashionistas have long considered pedophilia to be en vogue. Britney Spears, for instance, was
featured
in revealing attire on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine at the young age of 17, in which she was in bed holding a Teletubby. Likewise, French Vogue featured child models in 2011.
The fashion industry is clearly capitalizing on the vices of a culture
addicted
to the consumption of pornographic images. There were
at least 30 child pornography sites
on the dark web in 2019, according to the FBI.
Between 2018 and 2019, the number of photos and videos marked as child sexual abuse by technology firms has reportedly more than doubled to
45 million
. Meanwhile, as companies such as Balenciaga attempt to normalize child pornography, prosecutions for the crime decreased
by 36%
between fiscal 2016 and 2020.
Naturally, the outcry from people horrified by Balenciaga’s sinister agenda was so intense that the company suspended its ads. Balenciaga also deleted its social media accounts in response to social media users who publicly berated the company for its “frightening” and “creepy” depictions of children. The company was wrong to think for a moment that its sexualized marketing of children would be acceptable.
Balenciaga is not the only institution to minimize the dangers of pedophilia lately. The
New York Times
and the
Washington Post
recently published glowing reviews of a play about a group of “harshly sentenced” pedophiles. In his review of Downstate, by playwright Bruce Norris, the Post writer describes one of the victims in the play as “the drama’s most disagreeable character.” He goes on to say that “it’s almost impossible to broad-brush the perspective at the heart of this impeccably acted drama without sounding as if one is advocating some extraordinary level of consideration for individuals who have committed unspeakable crimes.”
Gee, perhaps that’s because the play downplays the threat of pedophilia in ways likely offensive to any real victim of such abuse. After all, they’re just children, right?
Meanwhile, in California, child abuse is being
normalized
each day by state prisons that release thousands of child abusers after they have spent less than a year behind bars for crimes including rape, sodomy, and sexual abuse of children under age 14. One offender was convicted of “continuous sexual abuse of a child” in 2015 but served just two days in a Los Angeles County jail and five years of probation. He now lives just one block away from a Montessori school daycare and three blocks from an elementary school, according to the California Megan’s Law database. What could go wrong?
If you need another example of just how little concern there is about protecting children, look no further than Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon’s decision to house 26-year-old
Hannah Tubbs
in a juvenile facility for molesting a 10-year-old girl when he was 17. To top it off, Tubbs, despite never having done so prior to his arrest, self-identified as transgender and was sent to a facility for underage girls.
It is no surprise that Tubbs would later be found
laughing at the soft sentence
while mocking the child he victimized.
The rampant endorsement of pedophilia by the world’s elite not only enables perpetrators but sends a clear message to young people that such depraved behavior is acceptable and expected. Most people are undoubtedly outraged by this, but if we don’t make our voices heard loudly and repeatedly, the innocence of children will continue to be exploited, threatened, and attacked.
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Gabriel Nadales is the national director of Our America.
