So I’ve been watching Ultraviolet on DVD today in between spats of job-finding. And I’ve been loving it. And then I hit the fourth episode – one on paedophilia. And it happened again – as I watched it I became gradually more concerned about where the line was being drawn between gay people and paedophiles. Firstly, it was male-male paedophilia, which always alarms me, since sexual abuse is most often male-female and within families. Secondly, two men walking around in a park is used as an indication that it might be an area attended by paedophiles – as opposed to a cruising ground for a particular kind of exhibitionist or closeted poof. Thirdly, one of the paedophiles is shown disposing of an adult gay porn mag – adult male on male as well. Finally, the two main paedophiles are camp mincers – lip pursing bitches with high voices and limp wrists – semiotic indicators of gay men. A structuralist critic would no doubt have a lot to say about the grouping together of ‘unattractive’ and ‘unaccepted’ sexualities – I just saw a clumsy and insulting episode that was (possibly unintentionally) homophobic. It’s discoloured my whole view of the series.
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