Once again, the UK reels in horror in the knowledge that wasps have been attracted to jam. I am of course referring to the "shock, horror" news that Jimmy Savile, a known oddball and eccentric liked nothing more than running marathons, raising millions for charity and the company of pubescent teenage girls. Wrinkled old BBC luvvies are wringing their hands in guilt and shame as the carpet is lifted 30 years after the events and the cries of "we all knew, but well, it was Jimmy and no one could touch him" ring out.
Lurid tales of a bejeweled freak in a caravan camping overnight in Girls School grounds and the Radio One Roadshow - the equivalent of X Factor on Tour - heading for wherever large quantities of nubile schoolgirls could be guaranteed abound. Let the investigations and the inquiries commence. Let heads roll in the "entertainment" business.
There's a very good reason Mrs Robinson should not put her daughter on the stage. Any industry that allows unlimited access to the fragile emotions and growing bodies of teenagers is going to attract unsavoury types. It isn't a coincidence that marketing executives target precisely this audience as easy money - they are quite literally ripe for the picking. I grew up in the 70's when every Tom, Dick and Harry was trying to start a band that would get them on Top of the Pops and into the heaving pool of teenagers that idolised the every move a baby faced pop star made. I can assure you, Justin Bieber is currently fighting off hoards of 14 year olds keen to prove their undying love to him and his managers and marketing gurus are in no mood to tell the teeny boppers to back off. There are fortunes to be made out there!
We have over sexualised our children and are now crying foul when grown adults decide to harvest the forbidden fruit offered to them. I'm no friend of the predator paedophile but to pretend that society does not encourage the premature participation of pubescent teenagers in matters sexual is to bury our heads in the sand. Where once the family taught morals and manners, marketing companies now decide that your 9 year old daughter will be ridiculed at school if she isn't wearing a bra and mascara and dating boys.
Always question the motives of those who actively pursue the opportunity to be around and adored by impressionable teenagers. Unlike positions of authority (clergy, Scouts, teachers) they have no need to terrorize their victims. As Jimmy Savile and plenty of others soon found out, they will quite literally fall into your arms. Give our children back their childhood, protect them from the world of commercial greed with basic good parenting and chances are they will never fall into the arms of a bejeweled freak keen to rifle through their pockets for money and more.
