Posts by Lilith __
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Up Front: Fringe of Darkness, in reply to Katharine Moody,
Yes, we (society) need to understand far more about this wider problem. I just think our knowledge needs to be framed for the purposes of understanding, as opposed to interest.
This is what Anke and Emma have been doing. In the face of a mass of difficulties, including people bizarrely attacking them as if they were exploiters, or had no empathy or understanding.
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If I may quote Emma's original post:
I was transcribing hours of interviews with people from Centrepoint: victims, abusers, people who’d been deeply scarred, people who’d been to prison, people who were just around. Anke was trying to get a broader picture of what had happened, a more nuanced one;
The next day, about half an hour of interview later, I was sitting at my keyboard with tears running down my face listening to the same woman cry as she talked about some of the other victims, as she expressed genuine remorse, as she said, I had no right to do that. As she talked about wanting to see those girls again, to apologise. The woman I had hated the day before was breaking my heart. She cried again, talking about her parents visiting her in prison.
What I went through was simply brushing up against the edges of what Anke was living for years. She has shown extraordinary courage in writing not just about what she learned, but about the profound effect it had on her as a human being who was also a journalist. We send writers and journalists into these fraught situations, to come out with the story, and expect them to be unscathed. To bear witness, and be unaffected, neutral observers.
It is abundantly clear that what Anke was doing, examining the wider picture through face-to-face interviews with a wide variety of people directly involved, is tremendously valuable. Without interviews like this we can't possibly understand what went on at Centrepoint. It's a loss for all of us that her work has been halted.
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Up Front: Fringe of Darkness, in reply to Katharine Moody,
I imagine any number of individuals who were illegally sexualised by this organisation who are still alive today feel, not only un-traumatised, but more sexually fulfilled in later life as a result.
I'm sorry, but what the fuck? You think people get good sex techniques from being sexually abused? What?
I don’t disagree that those wanting to be heard should give voice their sorrows, hurts, anguish, anger, trauma etc.if they feel that might assist their own healing. I think there are many venues to do this already
Public Address has been a safe place, at least at times, for survivors to share their stories, for people with professional or personal experience to share their insights, and for the rest of us to listen respectfully.
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Up Front: Fringe of Darkness, in reply to Kyle MacDonald,
Ellis seems a miscarriage of justice. I do have a problem with the whole concept of “False Memory Syndrome” though in that it reifies something in a very unhelpful way. It is true that interview techniques of children used to be problematic and that children are inherently more suggestible that adults (although adults are too).
My understanding of the Ellis case is that there’s no doubt the children were abused – but by the bizarre ‘counselling’ methods, not by Ellis. A disaster for all concerned.
I'm looking forward to reading Beck Eleven's cover article in the new North & South on Peter Ellis. I think the case won't go away until there's a proper inquiry into how the 'counselling' and police investigation could go so far off the rails.
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Up Front: Fringe of Darkness, in reply to Nat Curnow,
As a young teenager you are so impressionable and vulnerable, especially when it comes to sex and I keep some memories from those times that still disturb me today. I recently caught up with a friend who was a young victim, we had a lot of of discussion about that time and one of the thoughts we had was that we had witnessed, first hand the sordid, collapse of the hippy dream.
I can't imagine what the survivors have been though. But I think there is great value in what Anke and Emma have been doing: because sexual abuse is not limited to hippy communes, or even to communes in general. There are generally people who know of abuse, but turn a blind eye, or explain it away. If we can understand how this happens, we can hope to prevent more abuse in future.
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Up Front: Fringe of Darkness, in reply to Russell Brown,
It’s hard to credit now how accepted and acceptable Centrepoint was within a wider hippyish community.
Yes. I knew lovely people who were peripherally involved with Centrepoint. What we might now call alternative lifestylers.
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Up Front: Fringe of Darkness, in reply to David Haywood,
The third is just fine, and indeed I have a good friend who used to work in the field of female ejaculation
Some of my best friends, etc...
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Thanks Emma, thanks Anke. Investigating terrible things is vital work, and those who do it deserve all our support and gratitude.
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Thank you for sharing this Fiona.
And very best of luck. :-)
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Up Front: So Farewell Then, UCSA, in reply to Emma Hart,
Very handy for when a mixed-gender group had just “fallen” in the river.
South Island rivers can be swift, deep, and treacherous.