Why celebrated males think they are licensed to offend
Michael Salter
A sense of entitlement to sexual validation lies behind many acts of rape and sexual abuse, and some men's fame gives them a sense of impunity, writes Michael Salter.
On trial: Rolf Harris. Photo: Reuters
The recent conviction of former Hey Dad! star Robert Hughes for the sexual abuse of girls is the latest in a string of allegations against high-profile men. In Britain, Australian entertainer Rolf Harris is on trial accused of abusing girls. Celebrity publicist Max Clifford has been jailed for sexual assault of women and girls. British police now suspect television personality Jimmy Savile was one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders.
The lives of celebrity offenders such as Hughes and Savile have been heavily scrutinised by the media and public to identify the factors that contributed to their behaviour. But the one factor that all these men have in common -their masculinity - is rarely commented upon. In contemporary debates about the nature of manhood, sexual violence is still viewed as a ''disordered'' expression of men's otherwise natural or biological drives. Sexual violence by men continues to be seen as a ''natural'' fact that doesn't require explanation. This shifts attention away from the role of power in rape and sexual abuse: power that is invested in men by institutions and communities who then turn a blind eye to those men who sexualise their authority and turn it against the vulnerable.
The term ''paedophile'' has been attached to Hughes and other celebrity offenders However, Hughes did not specifically target very young girls. One of his victims was aged 15 at the time of the offence. Savile is known to have sexually assaulted women as well as children and teenagers. These crimes cannot be explained as the symptom of a mental illness such as paedophilia. They are better understood as abusive displays of power by men whose fame gave them a sense of impunity.
Status and influence are defining features of the contemporary masculine ideal. Boys and men establish their gender credentials through a myriad of displays - whether in their professional, social, personal or sexual lives - that are designed to win respect and deference from others. The prospect that these displays might fail can generate intolerable anxiety, particularly in relation to sexual performance which is closely associated with ''real'' masculinity.
Some boys and men resort to forceful and even violent strategies to reduce their sense of vulnerability in the sexual encounter, and to ensure that their masculinity receives the recognition they feel they are entitled to.
This dynamic was clearly at work in the mass killings committed this week in California by Elliot Rodger, who murdered six people and wounded 13 before killing himself. Rodger made it clear in his online manifesto that the murders were triggered by feelings of sexual rejection, and that only a spectacle of gendered violence could restore his injured masculinity.
Jailed: Max Clifford. Photo: Reuters
A male sense of entitlement to sexual validation from women and girls lies behind many acts of domestic violence, rape and sexual abuse. The targeting of younger victims in child sexual abuse only increases the man's sense of mastery and control.
Feminists have long described sexual violence as the quintessential act of male domination because it is not just about sex. It is the use of sex to illustrate, in no uncertain terms, the stark inequalities of power that persist between abusive men and the children and women they target.
Hughes' victims described a man who gratified himself by humiliating the powerless. He exposed himself on the set of Hey Dad! to an 11-year-old girl. In court, one of Hughes' victims recalled falling asleep in his house as a teenager, only to wake up to find him abusing her. When she pushed him away, he retaliated by bending down to lick her face.
During his sentencing remarks at the conclusion of the trail, Justice Peter Zahra described Hughes' conduct as ''predatory'' and ''degrading''.
In sexual violence, multiple forms of male power coalesce at once: not only the physical ability to commit the act, but the cultural and legal impunity to get away with it. Social norms and legal systems are organised in ways that place female victims under intense pressure to prove that they didn't ''want it'' or were not otherwise at fault. Sexist myths of girls and women who consent to sex only to make malicious allegations afterwards persist in legal processes and media commentary. These stereotypes undermine the credibility of female victims and place them at a disadvantage before they have even made a complaint.
This power imbalance is only intensified when the alleged perpetrator is famous and respected. Authorities may weigh the complaint up against the disruption that a public allegation will cause the man and those invested in his celebrity. In this calculation, the victim typically loses.
In the Hughes case, as in other instances of celebrity perpetrators, a picture emerges of victims and concerned bystanders who contacted the authorities only to find an entrenched reluctance to pursue an investigation into a wealthy and well-known man.
It was former Hey Dad! child actor Sarah Monahan's courageous decision to speak up, and the subsequent public outcry, that led to the reopening of the investigation into Hughes and to his conviction. It seems the power that high-profile abusers seek through their offending is often bolstered by the motivated obliviousness of those around them who prefer not to upset the status quo.
As allegations of abuse and rape by high-profile perpetrators accumulate, they pull into focus the misuse of authority by powerful men who feel entitled to the bodies of the powerless, but they also highlight those institutions and systems that create such power imbalances in the first place.
Dr Michael Salter is a lecturer in criminology at the University of Western Sydney and the author of Organised Sexual Abuse (Routledge, 2013).
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