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New Zealand
Listener
Vol 186, No 3259
October 26, 2002
Abuser and abused
Letter to the Editor
by Dr John Read
Senior Lecturer, Dept of Psychology, University of Auckland
Lynley Hood has finally revealed (New Writing, October 19) the extreme bias that
is usually so well concealed behind her public persona of objective,
scholarly investigator.
In trying to convince us that what she (objectively?) calls "the sexual
abuse hysteria" is still ongoing today, she cites some intriguing
examples. We are informed, for instance, that school teachers who have sex
with students "have been abusing nobody but themselves". She just
somehow knows, with an unswerving and enviable faith in her own judgment,
that none of these children was damaged in any way.
Even more revealing, however, is the inclusion of the "allegations
against Catholic priests" in her list of recent examples of the supposed
"witch hunt". Even the Catholic Church, hardly an example of the
radical feminist lesbian brigade that we are told is responsible for all the
"hysteria", acknowledges the tragedies and, to its credit, is doing
its best to provide redress and to prevent future abuse of children in its
care. Most New Zealanders, however saddened by all this, can see that this is
a significant step forward. But not Hood, who tries to educate us that it
isn't the abuse of the children we should be concerned about, but the
allegations against the priests.
She continues her unending calls for yet another inquiry into the one sexual
abuse case from which she generates her woefully prejudiced attacks on those
New Zealanders who try to increase our awareness of the problem or assist the
thousands who have been abused. Perhaps in the light of this new and
compelling evidence of her bias we should, instead, have an inquiry into the
process of how book awards are made.
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