The Usual Suspects: Kevin Spacey and the Red Herring of “Gay Perversion”
Apparently, the Kevin Spacey version of “she was asking for it by wearing that dress” is “well I’m gay, which explains why I would molest a child.” Eyeroll. Heteronormative patriarchy is great at creating red herrings for its destruction. As activist and editor-in-chief at Wear Your Voice Magazine Ashlee Marie Preston has said, “I’m not interested in Kevin Spacey being gay. I’m interested in why we’re conflating sexuality with pedophelia. Stay on topic.” “Why,” indeed.
I believe Kevin Spacey’s poor rationalization serves two purposes: He is ashamed of being gay (which is a completely separate issue than him molesting a child), and he believes that by using “gayness” as a shield against molesting children then it somehow justifies or diminishes the seriousness of that crime. Well you don’t get to throw our whole community(ies) under the bus to save your own ass. That is a pussy-ass fucking move, don’t pardon my French. You are perpetuating the reasons why many Queer and Trans folks do not feel it’s safe to be their most authentic selves. Just because you are a gay man does not give you the right to facilitate stigma against us.
We have seen the conflation of “gayness” with perversion play out with other, albeit slightly different cases, like with serial killers John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer in the news media coverage of their crimes (and no, I’m not equating Spacey himself as being a serial killer so much as comparing the ways in which being gay can promulgate notions of “perversion.”) The fact that Dahmer and Gacy were gay men or at least men who have sex with men, who also prayed upon minor boys and young gay men somehow added to the demented “perversion” of the murders they committed in news coverage of these cases. An extra whammy of “titilation” for all of the bored midwestern small town folk. Something for the news media to capitalize on and use to conflate puritanical sexual disgust with the rightful disgust one should feel at the mention of rape, pedophilia or murder.
Ted Bundy was only regarded as a “pervert” by the news media in the sense that he was a necrophiliac and had sexual contact with dirty, nasty “hookers.” Since Bundy did not commit any discovered or reported rapes of other men, the perversion in the case of Ted Bundy was that he only targeted/raped “prostitutes.” Ooooh, more titilation for the bored townies! “He did what to those hookers??? Marge, turn up the gosh darn volume on that tv!”
In these examples and in the example of Spacey, we see the ways in which society devalues different identities (gay, men who has sex with men, sex workers, etc.) Gacy or Dahmer or Spacey’s crime(s) were socially unacceptable in numerous valid ways, but what gets fired together gets wired together, as my therapist says and then people have a hard time extricating whats real from smoke and mirrors. These were gay men, or men who have sex with men, who chose other men or young boys as their victims. That’s what the news media, and Spacey himself focus on. The “Who” rather than the “What.” That is the wool that the patriarchy pulls over our eyes. Hence, Spacey is really deflecting the rightful shame he should feel for his actions onto the (now adult) boy he molested when he was a child. Spacey is essentially saying I can’t help it, I’m a perverted gay man! Feel sorry for me and my perverted predilections! Well Spacey, I’m gay, I’m a child rape survivor and I got to say that I see your piss poor deflection. And I don’t feel one bit sorry for you and all your fucking internalized oppression and shame around being attracted to men. You don’t get a free pass to rape children just cause you hate yourself for being gay. This isn’t an excuse for reprehensible behavior that in actuality has nothing to do with who you are attracted to. So quit your bullshit, bitch-ass little “poor me” routine cause most fellow Gay, Queer and Trans folks I know have been given a hard time for their identities, but that doesn’t give you the right to jump on top of the bigot pig-pile against your own community. You don’t have the right to rape children and get off scott-free because you’re gay. Being a part of a marginalized group of people doesn’t give you a free pass to hurt others. Let me be the first homo to break it down for you, it doesn’t work that way.
It is not okay to use an excuse- any excuse- for pedophilia. It is also unjust to create a diversion so you may collect sympathy for your “gay perversions.”
Towards the end of the film The Usual Suspects, as keyser Soze (spacey) revels in getting away with his fake identity he says to the camera while lighting a cigarette, “the greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing the world he did not exist.”
Touché.
*shout out to all my badass Gay, Queer, Trans, POC, and Sex Worker communities out there doing incredible activist work to dismantle the white heteronormative patriarchy! Nobody but nobody is more resilient, creative, strong and beautiful than we are ❤️
