and ain't I a woman: Hollingworth blames the victim
The statements made by Governor General Peter Hollingworth on the ABC's February 18 Australian Story program, perpetuate sexist attitudes about female sexuality.
Describing sexual abuse of a 14-year-old woman by the Anglican priest in charge of her boarding hostel in the 1950s, Hollingworth said: "This is something that happened over 40 years ago. A young priest and a young woman in a boarding hostel in the country. My belief is that this was not sex abuse. There is no suggestion of rape or anything like that, quite the contrary. My information is rather that it is the other way around."
Hollingworth was justifying his 1995 decision, taken when as Anglican archbishop of Brisbane, to allow the priest, Donald Shearman, to continue to officiate. Within a month of Hollingworth's departure from the post, Shearman's right to officiate was withdrawn.
Hollingworth's comments echo Shearman's view of the incident: "Abuse is a term I reject. I think there might be a great deal of revenge in all this; sometimes I think I have been set up".
Part of the "evidence" for this view cited by Hollingworth is the woman's decision, in the '70s, to resume a sexual relationship with Shearman.
The woman at the centre of the story, however, does not view the teenage relationship as consensual sexual activity between adults. Nor does former ABC deputy chairperson and Women's Electoral Lobby founder Wendy McCarthy, who was a resident at the boarding house at the time of the abuse, and has maintained contact with the woman involved.
Speaking on the February 20 7.30 Report, McCarthy argued that Shearman's action had "ruined [the woman's] life". Describing her "outrage" at Hollingworth's comments, McCarthy said, "We all got crushes on our teachers. But we didn't expect the teachers to respond".
Maintaining the relationship, McCarthy points out, is a way some abuse victims attempt to "make it seem that there was real caring". In a statement sent to the Sydney Morning Herald in mid February, the woman involved said that she resumed the relationship because she was "desperate".
Not until media condemnation had reached a frenzy on February 22, did Hollingworth offer an apology to the woman involved. Making the false claim that his comments were meant to refer to a later adult relationship, he still didn't retract his statement that the relationship was consensual.
Hollingworth said he does not "condone" the behaviour of the priest, "whether or not the girl was willing". But he doesn't clarify why he condemns the behaviour — because it was extra-marital sex, because the young woman was a "child" or because it was abusive? Hollingworth's tone smacks of prurient disapproval — of the woman for attracting the priest and of the priest for succumbing.
Fourteen-year-olds can have consensual sex — and many do. But there is nothing "consensual" about a relationship based on abuse of power. A young woman approached by a priest — who is in loco parentis to her, runs the hostel she sleeps at, and is responsible for her "spiritual" well-being — does not have a reasonable chance to say no.
In the context that the young woman was placed in, and given her later accusations of abuse, it is meaningless to speak of her "being willing".
There is, unfortunately, nothing new about attempts to blame women for their own abuse. In the February 21 Age, Pamela Bone cites a report that found that in 40% of rape cases, barristers were granted permission by the judge to question the victim on her or his previous sexual experiences, despite this being against the law since the early '90s. Not surprisingly, sexual assault remains one of the least reported crimes.
Christian churches have a shameful history of perpetuating ideas about women — that their sexuality is dangerous, that they are "temptresses" — that contribute to sexism and sexual assault against women. Hollingworth, despite his decision as archbishop of Brisbane to ordain women as Anglican bishops, has a history of opposing the ordination of women and is one of the staunchest opponents of IVF access for single women.
Hollingworth's comments are dangerous. By denying the very real experience of sexual abuse suffered by this young woman, he offers support to men who believe that women "lead them on", and denies it to women who may already fear that they caused a man to assault them. To end sexual assault, we have to defeat these attitudes.
BY KATE WILSON
[The author is a member of the socialist youth group Resistance.]
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, February 27, 2002.
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