Sex scandals in Britain seem to be a regular happening. In 1961 just such an event rocked Harold McMillan's Conservative government for many days when John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War was forced to resign and stand down over his association with a nineteen year old model.
There were lurid accounts of parties at a luxurious country estate organised by a mystery man in political circles in which attractive young women provided sexual services. Two of them, Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies had their photographs splashed across the front pages of the nation's media.
Espionage was suggested when it was learned that Christine Keeler not only slept with John Profumo, but was also seeing a naval attache from the Russian embassy in London. This time around the target is a senior member of the British Royal family and a girl just seventeen years old.
The Prince of York appears guilty on two counts. He enjoyed the hospitality of notorious US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and a picture exists of him with his arm around the waist of the young woman making the sex claim. His televised statement that he " does not recall" ever meeting her seems disingenuous.
It is evident that the Palace is deeply embarrassed and the 59 year old second son of the Queen and Prince Phillip has been asked to step back from royal duties. What is surprising to many people is that sex continues to tarnish reputations despite the sexual freedom that exists in the society we enjoy today.
Prostitution is now legal and brothels are common in world cities. The vast consensus of young people experience a range of sexual encounters before they finally choose a permanent partner and this is done openly. Sex is no longer the finger waving sin it was made out to be in the early years of the twentieth century.
Contraception is freely available on supermarket shelves - and in dispensers behind the toilet doors in many social venues. It seems strange that a fifty-nine year old, divorced man is pilloried and forced to withdraw from society because he accepted sex from a compliant young woman at a house party. Somehow the suggestion that sexual deviant Jeffrey Epstein probably recruited young women for that purpose seems immaterial. His sin seems to be lieing about the encounter.
Would the same stigma exist if Prince Andrew had gone to a brothel, paid the required fee and made a selection from the women offering - and taken one to bed ? The girl at the party was aged seventeen, and eighteen seems to be the sticking point where commercial sex is involved, although the age of consent is usually set at sixteen in most world countries.
It seems that Epstein got what he deserved, but Prince Andrew is mostly guilty of failing the believability test in the public eye !
No comments:
Post a Comment