Academic normalization of pedophilia as natural and normal
Warning: sensitive material
There is a systematic effort by academia to “normalize” pedophilia.
Below are three examples:
(1) 1981 book, Perspectives on Paedophilia, published by the respectable Batsford:
Aimed at “social workers, community workers, probation officers and child care workers,” the book was edited by Sussex University sociology lecturer Brian Taylor. In his “Introduction,” Taylor decried society’s “prejudice” against child sex — that the public “generally thinks of paedophiles as sick or evil men who
lurk around school playgrounds in the hope of attempting unspecified
beastliness with unsuspecting innocent children”. But that view of
pedophiles is an “inaccurate and unhelpful stereotype” that flies in the
face of the “empirical realities of paedophile behaviour”.Most, though not all, of the contributors to Perspectives on Paedophilia were strongly pro-pedophile:
At least one contributor, National Institute for Social Work director of education Peter Righton, was later convicted of child sex crimes.- At least two contributors were members of Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) — a British pro-pedophile activist group.
- Two contributors are still academically active and influential:
Ken Plummer, emeritus professor of sociology at Essex University, wrote in Perspectives on Paedophilia:
“The isolation, secrecy, guilt and anguish of many paedophiles are not
intrinsic to the phenomen[on] but are derived from the extreme social
repression placed on minorities…. Paedophiles are told they are the
seducers and rapists of children; they know their experiences are often
loving and tender ones. They are told that children are pure and
innocent, devoid of sexuality; they know both from their own experiences
of childhood and from the children they meet that this is not the
case.” Plummer said he became a member of PIE in order to “facilitate”
his research.- Graham Powell, past president of the British Psychological Society and a current consultant and “provider of psychology support services” to UK government agencies — the Serious Organised Crime Agency, the National Crime Squad, the Metropolitan Police, Kent Police, Essex Police, and the Internet Watch Foundation. Powell co-authored a chapter in Perspectives on Paedophilia, which states: “In the public mind, paedophile attention is generally assumed to be traumatic and to have lasting and wholly deleterious consequences for the victim. The evidence that we have considered here does not support this view.” Later, Powell told The Sunday Telegraph that “what I wrote was completely wrong,” blaming the “poor” literature [scientific evidence] available in 1981. He expressed “deep regret” if he had in any way made things more difficult for victims of pedophila. (Source: The Telegraph)
Among
the some 50 attendants were admitted pedophiles (“Minor-Attracted
Persons”); researchers from Harvard University, the Johns Hopkins
University, the University of Louisville, and the University of
Illinois; and “supportive” mental health professionals, including
world-renowned Johns Hopkins “sexologist” Dr. Fred Berlin, who delivered the keynote address, saying: “I want to completely support the goal of B4U-ACT.”These are the highlights of the conference:
- There are no absolute standards of right or wrong: “These things are not black and white; there are various shades of gray.”
- Western cultures make too much of a big deal about sex: “In Western culture sex is taken too seriously.”
- American society should “maximize individual liberty” because “a highly moralistic society…is not consistent with liberty.”
- Pedophiles are “unfairly stigmatized and demonized” by society. Instead of being a pathology, an adult’s desire to have sex with children is “normative” or standard.
- Pedophiles are oppressed by “vice-laden diagnostic criteria” and “cultural baggage of wrongfulness.”
-
“We are not required to interfere with or inhibit our child’s sexuality”. “Children are not
inherently unable to consent” to sex with an adult, and “Assuming
children are unable to consent lends itself to criminalization and
stigmatization.” Self-descried “gay activist” and London School of
Economics teaching fellow Jacob Breslow said children can properly be “the object of our attraction” and that a child’s consent is not needed for pedophiles to have sex with “it”
any more than we need consent from a shoe to wear it. Breslow used
graphic language to describe the act of climaxing (ejaculating) “on or
with” a child, which elicited no objection from the audience. - The Anglo-American standard on age of consent is “puritanical”. The Europeans have it correct, with the age of consent historically set at 10 or 12. Boys, especially, have “always been able to have sex at any age.”
- Pedophiles “have feelings of love and romance for children” in the same way adult heterosexuals and homosexuals have romantic feelings for one another.
- “The majority of pedophiles are gentle and rational.”
- The DSM should “focus on the needs” of the pedophile, and should have “a minimal focus on social control,” rather than obsessing about the “need to protect children.”
(3) July 2013 University of Cambridge conference:
As reported by Andrew Gilligan for The Telegraph, conference presentations included:
- “Liberating the paedophile: a discursive analysis”.
- “Danger and difference: the stakes of hebephilia”: Hebephilia is the sexual preference for children in early puberty, typically 11 to 14-year-olds.
- “Paedophilic interest is natural and normal for human males”: A presentation by Philip Tromovitch, a professor at Doshisha University in Japan, claimed that “a sizeable minority of normal males would like to have sex with children” and “Normal males are aroused by children.”
Among the conference attendees was Tom O’Carroll, a multiple child sex offender, long-time campaigner for the legalization of sex with children, and former head of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE)
— a British pro-pedophile activist group. O’Carroll wrote on his blog
after the conference: “Wonderful! It was a rare few days when I could
feel relatively popular!”source
