He suggested that students are being 'indoctrinated and groomed' by certain educators
Award-winning US writer David Mamet has sparked outrage online after he suggested that male teachers are "inclined to paedophilia" on live television.
Speaking on
Fox News on Sunday, April 10, the Pulitzer-prize winning author, Tony-nominated playwright and filmmaker was discussing community control of education following Florida's
controversial 'Don't Say Gay' bill when he made the bold claim.
Mamet was discussing the legislation which bans schools from teaching subjects such as sexual orientation and gender to children under 10 when insisted that "we need to take back control", before suggesting that children are being "groomed" and "abused mentally" if not physically.
https://twitter.com/MarkHarrisNYC/status/1513559262223638533?s=20&t=CVKRSlJyHHSOBB9o0NSD9g
Mamet argued that in the current system, "what we have is kids being not only indoctrinated but groomed in a very real sense by people who are, whether they know it or not, sexual predators”, adding that while he doesn't necessarily believe the abuse is being carried out physically, "they're [teachers] abusing them mentally and using sex to do so".
The 74-year-old author - best known for works such as
Glengarry Glen Ross and
House of Games, not to mention a play entitled,
Sexual Perversity in Chicago - then went on to suggest: “This has always been the problem with education – teachers are inclined, typically men because men are predators, to paedophilia”.
Sparking furious debate on social media, with many labelling him a "
right-wing homophobe", one person commented, "So we already grossly underpay teachers and now we’re just openly saying they’re inclined to be pedophiles".
Others noted that Mamet himself had previously written a
rejected screenplay for a film adaptation of Lolita - the story of a professor who has an inappropriate relationship with an underage girl.
https://twitter.com/jamieloftusHELP/status/1513619606295891968?s=20&t=0sTLOgej0A7u3kiiNKAUGA
Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders adviser Matt Duss laid the blame at Fox's feet: “the main takeaway from that despicable David Mamet clip about teachers is that
Rupert Murdoch remains the world’s most dangerous oligarch and it’s not close”.
Mamet, who received criticism back in March for stating that he believed "
Trump did a great job as president", is yet to respond to the backlash over his latest comments.
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