Reply #138: +1.

[wickerwoman]

Although in all probability we would have never heard about it at all since sexual abuse of girls is so commonplace it rarely makes the news unless it's a *very* young girl or there's some other hook (like cult activity, gang rape, a serial killer, or a really famous guy involved).

1 in 3 girls is molested before age 18- twice as many as the number of boys. Sexual abuse only really hits the news big when it involves boys and when it involves a cover-up by an institution like the Church, Boy Scouts, etc.

Boys being abused *is* considered news because it is comparatively rare and because it is more of a taboo/cultural violation for a man to rape a boy than for a man to rape a girl. Up until the last 200 years, a sixty year old raping an 11 year old was called "the wedding night".

In the 40s Errol Flynn was busted repeatedly with underaged girls and it just fed his reputation as a "lady's man". Jerry Lee Lewis still had a career after marrying a 13 year old. If Flynn had been accused of statutory rape involving underage boys, do you think Bill Buckley would have founded a defense society for him and he would have been acquitted? Would Jerry Lee Lewis still have had a career if he'd wanted to marry a 13 year old boy? How many rock stars have slept with fourteen or fifteen year old groupies and nobody bats an eyelid.

The sad fact is that in the US desiring "barely legal" girls is perfectly normal and understandable for any red-blooded American man, while desiring underage boys makes you a despicable pervert who should be shot in the street.

To answer the OP: yes, it would have been news because it was a 10 year old and a famous person and an institution covered it up. Certainly not because it was a girl and not a boy.

People turn a blind eye to sexual abuse of girls all the time. It's practically a cliche that step-dad diddles step-daughter and she tries to tell mom who either doesn't believe her because she wants to keep the man or blames the daughter because she's jealous and thinks the daughter is trying to steal him.