Donald Trump was elected as the 45th president of the United States on November 9th, 2016, in a stunning culmination of a campaign that epitomized long-held, traditional ideals of American democracy. How does this relate to my film opening? Well, in light of a discriminatory, misogynistic racist being sworn in to the most prestigious position in our government system, I feel it is necessary to represent minorities who are often ignored or portrayed with negative stereotypes in my project. Despite it being incomplete, I know the full concept of my film opening must shed light on people who aren't always humanized or considered worthy enough to have rights in our society.
With that being said, I am proud to reveal that my film opening will be centered around a very taboo and controversial topic- pedophilia. Don't get the wrong idea here; I'm not laying the groundwork for a case involving the humanization of child molesters. There is a drastic and a commonly misinterpreted difference between a pedophile and a convicted rapist. A pedophile, or one suffering from "pedophilic disorder", is a person who has a sustained sexual or romantic attraction towards children, generally prepubescent. A child molester by definition is one who committed a "a crime involving a range of indecent or sexual activities" between themselves and a child. A more pellucid distinction, as put by sexologist Ray Blanchard, psychiatry professor at the University of Toronto, is as follows: "Child molesters are defined by their acts" while "pedophiles are defined by their desires". We live in a society where the stigma of pedophilia and the fear of criminal consequences is so great that non-offending pedophiles rarely seek mental help for their disorders. The deep suppression of some of these people's desires could potentially cause them to act out on them for fulfillment or satisfaction. The point I'm trying to make here is that seeking help for medical illnesses and especially pedophilic tendencies needs to be normalized in order to prevent any sort of escalation of these feelings or possible misdemeanor to be pursued. We as a community need to end the shame and disgust that embodies pedophilia. We need to support people who are seeking help. We need to acknowledge that mental health is just as important as physical health- and it starts with the media.
Resources:
Letourneau, E. (n.d.). We Need to Make It Easier for Pedophiles To Seek Help. Retrieved
March 11, 2017, from http://time.com/3486493/preventing-child-sex-abuse-stephen-collins/
Martin, L. J. (n.d.). What Is Pedophilia? Retrieved March 11, 2017, from
http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/features/explaining-pedophilia#1
Horton, Yurii, and Raagan Price. "Portrayal of Minorities in the Film, Media and Entertainment
Industries." EDGE, web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/poverty_prejudice/mediarace/portrayal.htm.
Accessed 11 Mar. 2017.
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