Espionage

This story really does defy belief. (Some additional detail.)

It seems crass to be drawing anything positive from such a grotesque scenario, but I'm going to anyway: the BBC has nothing judgemental or prurient to say about the fact that Boy B was in love with Boy A.

Ten or fifteen years ago the story would have been different. There would have been talk of depravity and sickness. Perverted Boy B would have lured blameless Boy A into the evil web of his wicked desires.

It isn't much to celebrate. Both boys were clearly out of touch with reality. Boy B seems to have been (probably still is) massively fucked up -- you have to admire his creativity, but honestly, manœuvring someone he ostensibly loved to stab him to death? Not healthy.

Love is always hard to manage, and presumably an inability to deal properly with same-sex attraction was partly responsible for this nonsense. I have a lot of sympathy with Boy B's predicament, but that excuse goes only so far.

Still, the national broadcaster expects its audience to be able to recognise that a boy may fall in love with another without it being some kind of exceptional scandal. To that extent, at least, we've come a long way.
Posted by matt at May 29, 2004 02:00 AM