thank you, Betty Friedan

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Apr 09, 2010

Father Timothy Radcliffe, the former worldwide head of the Dominican order, tells us What We Have Learned from the sex-abuse scandal, and explains why we shouldn't blame those who were in authority (you know, like diocesan bishops, or heads of religious orders):

It is unjust to project backwards an awareness of the nature and seriousness of sexual abuse which simply did not exist then. It was only the rise of feminism in the late 1970s which, by shedding light on the violence of some men against women, alerted us to the terrible damage done to vulnerable children.?

And yet it's curious that, even prior to the feminist enlightenment of the 1970s, all states had laws against sexual molestation. Somehow your great-great-great-grandparents knew that it was wrong to rape a child. How did they happen upon such realizations, even before the appearance of Ms. magazine? Just lucky, I guess.