BOOK REVIEW: "THE POLITICS OF DEVIANCE"

The Iconoclast ^ | December 18, 2002 | Johannes L. Jacobse

[Apolitical]

The Politics of Deviance
Anne Hendershott
Encounter Books 2002
194 pages

Occasionally a book is published that examines the dogmas of the dominant culture with such clarity that the gatekeepers can only regard it as subversive. Anne Hendershott's "The Politics of Deviance" is such a book.

Hendershott, a professor of sociology at the University of San Diego, follows the lead of former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan who warned in the 1965 speech "Defining Deviancy Down" that "[society] has chosen not to notice behavior that would be otherwise controlled, disapproved, or even punished." Moynihan's warning proved true. Behaviors once considered deviant are now considered normal.

Hendershott's focuses on how advocacy groups manipulate language and social structures to redefine traditionally-defined deviant behavior as normal. Behavior that was once considered immoral, wrong or destructive is now redefined as normal, understandable or even desirable. Being "non-judgemental" constitutes the essence of the new morality.

Women's groups, the gay rights lobby, euthanasia advocates and activists in the medical profession fall under her critical gaze. She discusses how traditional ideas about personal responsibility are being displaced and the corrosive effects this has on the culture.

Hendershott quotes social theorist Philip Jenkins who argues that modern society is like a supermarket where the activists compete to win buyers for their products. Advertisers create emotional appeals to convince the consumer to buy a new product even though the one he already own works just fine. The advocates work the same way. They create emotional appeals to convince people that they need a new definition of deviance even though they never realized it.

In the past, deviants were at the margins of society (pushed there by their undesirable, destructive or socially-disapproved behavior); but in the new post-modern order, today's deviants are increasingly defined as those in the center (who still make "judgements," and hold onto traditional definitions of unacceptable behavior) . Public discourse about morality relies less on reason and common sense and more on "human will and desire as mediated through advocacy groups." Conventional morality is displaced with the post-modern morality of the advocate.

Hendershott is a sociologist, not a moral philosopher. She focuses practical concern on how advocacy groups try to win influence. The chapter titled "Celebrating the Sexually Adventurous Adolescent" for example, chronicles the tragic case of the Conyers, Georgia teens featured in the 1996 PBS Frontline series "The Lost Children of Rockdale County."

Conyers, an upwardly mobile suburb where many successful families landed in order to escape the problems of the city, noticed a disturbing rise in syphilis infections that involved more than 200 teenagers. On closer examination, health officials discovered a core of young girls, most between 13 and 15 years old but some as young as 12, involved in sexual encounters (often in groups) with slightly older boys.

You would think that adults would be alarmed at what happened in Conyers. Not so, writes Hendershott. PBS received some stinging criticism from moral progressives. Feminists were especially critical of PBS for "sensationalizing the story." Others praised PBS but not out of any sympathy for the troubled teens. They were pleased that the network admitted that the "young women have sexual desires and fantasies similar to young men."

The problems in Conyers ran deep. The "nonjudgmental, value-free sex education [that these children] have received in school since their elementary days" miserably failed them, Hendershott writes. Conyers had a comprehensive sex-education program where abstinence was offered, but it was presented amidst a flood of alternatives advocating promiscuity. Cleary these children got little moral guidance to challenge the "value free" training they received.

The normalizing of deviancy seen at Conyers occurs across the board in our society. Homosexual activism is portrayed as a civil-rights struggle to remove the stigma on homosexual behavior. Drug addiction and other behaviors are medicalized to avoid apportioning blame. Feminism creates an ideology of rape in order redefine gender relationships. Death advocates redefine the language of suicide and death in order to normalize killing. Pedophiles call sex with children "inter-generational sex" as the first step in normalizing child molestation. Hendershott examines these topics and more in detail......

[Apolitical]

Interesting book. Sounds worth reading.

[pikachu]

USD bump!

[RLK]

I'm happy someone else is beginning to say the same things as I've been saying and writing for nearly 40 years. I'll get a copy of the book for support.

[madprof98]

Just ordered a copy. Thanks for the heads-up.

[EdReform]

Bump & Ping

[scripter]

Thanks for posting this and thanks for the ping.

[VeritatisSplendor]

Moynihan coined that phrase in 1993. I remember it well. The author says 1965. She is confusing one famous Moynihan article with another. Sounds like the book won't be well-researched, I'll give it a pass.