When Gary Crutchley started taking pictures of his children playing on an inflatable slide he thought they would be happy reminders of a family day out.
But the innocent snaps of seven-year-old Cory, and Miles, five, led to him being called a ‘pervert’.
What an age we live in. I know a lot of guys here have complained about being afraid to help a lost kid out of fear of being branded a pedophile and a lot of times I can’t help but wonder, isn’t that a bit paranoid? But someone called a perv just for taking some family photographs? I think we know who the real pervs were in this situation.
This is a pretty common occurrence these days. It’s ridiculous. People’s pedo-phobia is completely out of whack with the basic facts of reality.
I’m 23, and when I’m out with my 3 year old niece at a playground or something I used to worry about people thinking she’s my kid (that I’d have a 3 year old at my age), but now I worry about people thinking I’m some kind of creepy kidnapper man. You can’t win.
I think any male taking photos of kids in public, like at a little league game or whatever, is immediately assumed to be a creepo. If a woman has the camera, she’s clearly someone’s mother, but a guy taking photos of little kids? Call the police!
Well, I just think it’s a bit pervy to assume that any man with a camera trained on a few kids is a pedophile. Like, the guy was just another dad, but their minds were right in the gutter.
From the headline about the slide, I assumed it was a waterslide and that the kids were in bathing suits. (Not that that would make it wrong, just that I could at least get where the overprotective mother was coming from.) But fully clothed kids in a public place? WTF?
My father was a professor of social psychology at UCLA. He told me that nonpathological referential thought processes are usually just an indication of low intelligence.
I’m not surprised. I understand that it’s common for women considering a divorce to photograph their husband bathing the kids so they can threaten him with an accusation of pedophilia in order to get a better settlement. Men are simply assumed to all be sexual predators these days.
Darn, The Stupid has gone pandemic . . . by now surely someone, somewhere is writing their MP/Congressman that there SHOULD be a law against photographing in public places w/o unanimous permissions from everyone around. Tribesmen in the deep bush who think cameras steal your soul at least have an excuse.
Interesting that there is actually a policy in place. Somewhat comforting that the cops seemed to have their heads screwed on right, agreeing with the photographer rather than the nutter.
Whenever I see a story like this, I worry that fear of being labeled a pedophile is going to drive all the normal, respectable dads, uncles, and other males out of the lives of small children completely.
How exactly did the current pedophobia that seems to be sweeping the world get started, anyway? Is it just that we’re running out of RATIONAL things to worry about in today’s hyperprotective, remove-all-possible-risks-from-all-possible-situations society, and so we have to fear the irrational? Or is it something else? I’d be interested in seeing a discussion on the origin of this phenomenon, as well as how to stop it.
My room mate’s GF’s daughter used to come in my room all the time when I was (trying) to watch TV. She would set on the bed with me both of us still wearing our regular clothes.
Lot’s of times she would talk herself right to sleep. I would then pick her up and carry her to the spare bedroom.
FF: Me, my room mate and girls mother were having dinner with some friends. The girls mother casualy made mention of the fact how cute she thought it was that she was so attatched to me and sometimes falls asleep in my bed.
One of the other stupid ass mothers spoke up and said “Oh that’s completely inappropriate.”
The girls mother went on to explain to her "Um, ya know. The door is kept wide open, the lights are on and they are both fully clothed. What’s so inappropriate?’ :dubious:
Stupid lady capitulated. But not really. It was obvious she only did so to avoid an arguement.
Good thing too. Cut their family role to being dispensers of money, swats and fear, freeing them up for their proper calling of defending America from its socialfascist Black Russian healthcareitarians.
What does this mean?
Thanks. I am pretty thick sometimes.