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An inquiry into the effects of sexual abuse on boys must, of necessity, involve a cultural critique. It must question our most fundamental assumptions about sexuality and desire; it must contest our vision of will, agency, and identity. The very phrase sexually abused boy is radical in its implication: it insists that boys are not in a perpetual state of unambivalent sexual readiness, and that they are boys nonetheless. To link the words sexually abused with boy is to challenge the bedrock of traditionally defined heteromasculinity. Perhaps masculinity is not defined by a ubiquitous heterosexual heat; perhaps agency and subjectivity are not equivalent to willing tumescence. To expose the sexual exploitation of boys is to expose the sexually fraudulent edifice of heteromasculinity. Now the doorway is opened for the reconceptualization of masculinity within all forms of gender identification and sexual object choice. Boys and men are permitted to repossess the privacy of their bodies, as well as the authenticity of their psychic lives.
It is this cultural critique which Gartner pursues in his new book, Betrayed as Boys. Gartner makes the simple argument that heterosexually inclined boys can be traumatized by the sexual embrace of older women, even if this embrace is erotically pleasurable. What a notion this is: that a “normal” heterosexual boy is not always “lucky” to find himself seduced; that he does not excitedly shift into willing agentic participation in his own seduction. In a traditional, heterosexually