Power abused by a parent is a double irresponsibility. But parental power used correctly is ‘taking responsibility’. Not that a father should have no power - a powerless parent cannot protect his child as he should. On the contrary, the danger of incest is a logical consequence of a social system that puts an excess of power in male hands - reinforced by a family structure that puts power in the father’s hands over his children. So a tendency to incest can’t be located within a particular type of man. Research into what kind of man commits incest has been unable to discover any important differences between them and any other men. Perhaps it is not so surprising that the fathers escape the blame. How could a father resist his little darling? - the argument goes. Some theorists point the finger of accusation at the daughter-victims too - because they were pretty, seductive, doted on their father or made themselves available. Mothers are also blamed for not putting a stop to the incest once it is discovered. With no outlets for his sexual impulses, they claim, the father ‘naturally’ turns to his daughter. In a major portion of the literature, mothers are blamed - because they went out to work, or were ill in hospital, or allowed themselves to become fat and unattractive, or were cold and unloving. And the experts have been very forthcoming. No amount of argument or explanation can, or should, disguise the fact that around 100 million young girls are being raped by adult men, often day after day, week after week, year in year out.Įnough of statistics. It was easier for Freud to believe the girls were making it up than to believe in his own evidence, such is the fear of facing incest: the outrageous secret.įor outrage it is. But the medical community howled him down and he eventually decided his patients had simply imagined the events, a ‘discovery’ that he later went on to develop into his now-famous theory of the Oedipus Complex. Initially Freud believed them and attempted to stretch his mind to encompass what he called ‘this astonishing thing’: that a substantial proportion of refined, educated Viennese men were systematically raping their daughters, nieces, granddaughters. Nearly every one of his female patients - who were suffering from all kinds of crippling emotional and psychosomatic symptoms - reported that they had been sexually assaulted -as children. To suggest - as Freud did - that their secret desire is to have sex with their fathers is to be totally blind to the evidence.įreud, in fact, has a great deal to answer for. With all the usual sources of love and security undermined, the horrors of home are simply intolerable and the only alternative is escape. In the case of the ‘delinquent’ incest victim, or the girl who goes on the streets to earn a living, it is a question of her having nowhere else to go.

And their voices have been ignored for far too long - with terrible consequences. One in four families means millions of young girls. Perhaps, on reading this, you will be tempted to dismiss the evidence as being too shocking to be true. They indicate that as many as one in 16 families may contain a girl toddler being sexually abused by an adult male.

Again, it takes a while for statistics like this to sink in. Research from Denver in the US found that half the victims were under ten and half of those were less than five years of age. Two-thirds of Israeli victims were less than ten years old and one in sixteen of victims in an Indian survey were aged between six months and six years. Other research shows that the abuse can - and does - begin as soon as the girl-child is born. And the figures are similar in the UK and Australia. Kinsey’s 1953 study in the US found incest in 24 per cent of families. And in the overwhelming majority of cases (80 - 90 per cent) it is girl-children that are the victims: sexually abused by fathers, uncles, grandfathers, brothers, fathers-in-law, neighbours, family friends.* In Cairo a survey in 1973 found between 33 and 45 per cent of families contained daughters who had been raped, molested, ‘interfered with’ by a relative or close family friend. Everywhere studies have been done the evidence is the same.

In case you can’t believe your eyes, I’ll repeat that statistic: one in four.

Nifty archive incest