Chester the Molester

I just read something that freaked me out about our society. Did you know there are people who assume most men are child predators? This started with a Dear Prudence advice column I read about a kid’s slumber party. Long story short, apparently one of the attendees Mom’s felt any non-relative male of their child was a possible molester. I had no idea the problem was out there, but the Wall Street Journal article sited in the column has me a bit spooked. I had no idea our society has come to the point where a man fears helping a child in distress because he is afraid someone will think he is a bad guy. One of the examples in this article reminded me a of a Police Blotter profile in my old community newspaper. The incident reported was a man stopped and questioned for walking into a community park around dusk with a male minor child. Guess what? This turned out to be a father and his son out for a walk who decided to go to the park swings before dinner. Wow, good thing you stopped that Mr. Officer, we wouldn’t want extraneous family bonding to occur in an public space.

I realize there are a lot of bad people in this world, both male and female. Chester the Molester could be lurking around the corner. I realize that bad men and women can hide their pervy tendencies. I get that, but to assume all males are molesters or predators, while all women are what…saintly mothers? That is a load of bunk! How many stories have you read about children dieing at the hands of their mothers? Worse yet, how about mothers who knowingly allow a pedophile access to their child? Both genders have saints and sinner…how sad we broke those down so harshly along gender lines. Let’s think about all the school sex scandals out there like Debra Lafave and others that involve women with boys. There is a whole lot of warped shit going on in this world beyond the To Catch a Predator infotainment program. There has to be a better way to address this then to live in fear that every male may be a predator.