Re:virus: Sins of the Fathers Is child molestation a sickness or a crime? by Th

From: Walpurgis (hidden@lucifer.com)
Date: Sun Jul 28 2002 - 04:31:07 MDT

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I'm posting a book review I wrote for kuro5hin.org which I think is relevant to this discussion. BTW, the article, "A meta-analytic examination of assumed properties of child sexual abuse using college samples," (Bruce Rind, Philip Tromovitch, Robert Bauserman) can be found here: http://www.tegenwicht.org/13_rbt_eng/rbt_files.htm
along with many other interesting articles.

NOT HARMFUL TO MINORS

The twin concepts of innocence and ignorance are vehicles for adult double standards.

A child is ignorant if she doesn't know what adults want her to know,
but innocent if she doesn't know what adults don't want her to know.
--Jenny Kitzinger, Children, Power, and the Struggle against Sexual Abuse

Never have I read a book which has been damned and derided on almost all sides, so steeped in controversy and outrage, yet, after reading this book it has become glaringly obvious that the detractors have not read it. Perhaps a few of its right-wing* critics have skimmed it looking for choice morsels which they can extract from the surrounding context and infuse with their own meaning (you know, much like they do with the Bible), so let me set a few things straight. What Judith Levine has actually written in her book http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/L/levine_harmful.html "Harmful to Minors" is not radical, unusual or beyond common sense.

Judith Levine, journalist, feminist and
http://www.mediacoalition.org/reports/stm.htm free speech activist, has written a book that should shock and appal no-one. Harmful to Minors is thoroughly researched, analytical and intelligent, yet states the obvious. Or as she puts it, Studies Show People Who Are Happy Smile More. What is obvious here is that pleasure is good and knowledge is power; these seem to be her basic premises.

That her book is perceived as subversive, radical or perverse illustrates how far the US has strayed from common sense in its dealings with sexual issues. These issues are broad and cover many subject areas. Levine touches on all of them in this book; issues like censorship and pornography, paedophilia, statutory rape, desire, http://www.nerve.com/Dispatches/voicebox/puberty/ puberty , chastity, abortion, pleasure, gender equality and AIDS.

Of course, the issue that has received the widest attention and condemnation is her discussion of child sexuality and sexual activity. Impossible to deny, difficult for most people to talk about, and censored by fear and taboo, child sexuality is that spectre which brings to mind a
thousand fears in worried parents, conservative politicians and puritanical religious fundamentalists. The problem today is that America is held in the grip of these groups, and almost every day a news story tells us about the latest http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/story.jsp?story=292294 statutory rape cases, the latest http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29041-2002May3.html paedophile trick and the efforts to stop it , without analysing the wider implications, or the violations of privacy and free speech that is the knee-jerk reaction to these issues. This book gives us a disturbing insight into our increasingly vigilant and oppressive restrictions of normal activities in children - 'playing doctor' is now seen as sexual misconduct, sending love-notes in class is 'sexual harassment' and an adolescent mooning resulted in a boy being placed in a restrictive and brutal program for child 'sex-offenders'.

At worst, Harmful to Minors has been condemned as a book which defends paedophilia, yet Levine never expresses any support for abusive relationships, nor is this ever covertly implied. Indeed, Levine is someone who obviously cares about people and children and has written this book to help people deal with the issue of children and sex. Levine explores what the difficulties are from a variety of perspectives which are contextualised in her illustration of the history of childhood (a very modern concept born only about 150 years ago and coupled with the notion of a child's asexual innocence).

One of the main problems is fear. People are afraid of their children being abused or exploited by sexual predators mainly identified as paedophiles. One of Levine's most controversial claims in that paedophilia is a myth (unfortunately, I cannot link to the excerpt from this book, as the book publisher, UMN, has taken the link down). Levine makes this claim because paedophilia is not a very well defined concept. Philosophers, psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists, politicians, criminologists and other experts all disagree as to what it is, how to define it, how to diagnose it. The concept is more a rhetorical term used (wrongly) to denote a sexual predator or child abuser. Much like the historical hysteria surrounding white slavery early in the last century, or satanic ritual abuse in the late eighties and later the fears about http://www.motherjones.com/mother_jones/JA96/levine.html children who molest, paedophilia is another symptom and projection of our anxiety about children, sexuality and sex. Lev
ine is not denying child abuse exists; on the contrary, children are left open to abuse by their lack of education.

Levine goes on to detail her claims regarding paedophilia and criticise related fears about child pornography. Levine shows that child porn is virtually absent on the world wide web (though not necessarily the Internet as a whole). Searching for yourself will illustrate the near impossibility of finding this material; though be careful! this kind of research can get you in trouble. That this is the case discourages people from verifying current claims and fears regarding child porn. Any child porn found is almost never sexually explicit, usually taking the form of rather old and chaste pictures of children riding bikes or swimming, or of nudes, easily obtainable from any parent's photo album or nudist beach. Typically, such images are uploaded by police to entrap people. Explicit material is often uploaded via web-cams by young women and girls who have a taste for exhibitionism. Paradoxically, this makes these girls the victims of pornography as well as criminal pornographers. The supposed ubiquity and acces
sibility of child porn is part of the atmosphere of terror which surrounds the issue of sex and children. It also illustrates that it is how we define who is and who isn't a child that makes the case for paedophilia.

This problem is a conceptual one, a problem of definition, and difference. The concept child can cover everyone from birth to age twelve, sixteen or eighteen. Central to this concept is when the child becomes an adult and is able to consent to sex. Where age of consent may be sixteen in one country or state and eighteen in another, a paedophilia or statutory rape case is defined according to these age boundaries. It is the understanding of the child and his or her abilities to consent that are really the issue. The age of consent laws which protect an 8-year-old from unwanted sex also 'protect' a 17-year-old from sex with her 18-year-old boyfriend.

This matter of consent is one of the primary concerns of Harmful to Minors. Levine notes the disparity in how children are considered responsible and consenting in the US. Though they are thought not to have the abilities to understand and consent to sex, or even feel that kind of love or interest, they are increasingly prosecuted and punished for adult crimes like murder, and are thus assumed to be capable of the worst kinds of offences, but not able to understand or feel sexual desire. Levine shows how informing children about sex from an early age allows them to understand the dangers and risks involved, and how they might protect themselves from unwelcome advances, exploitation and pregnancy in later life. Such information should also help children understand what pleasures are involved. According to Levine, the absence of any talk of sexual pleasure is one of the reasons why sexual education if failing in the US. Educators do not teach children how to enjoy sex, nor are they teaching children about diff
erent forms of sexuality from the monogamous, heterosexual norm. Indeed, they are even failing to teach children how to have sex safely. In the US, the main or even sole focus of sex education is abstinence.

However, children are still having sex before they are legally allowed, and their ignorance of contraception, or their instilled belief that such methods are useless, have resulted in a teenage pregnancy rate and HIV infection rate much higher than countries like the Netherlands, where sex ed. starts at a young age and involves teaching children about a wide variety of contraceptive and abortive methods, as well as making these things easily available. In Europe, where teenagers have as much sex as their US counterparts, pregnancy rates are a fourth as high than the US rates of 4.96 births per thousand girls. In the Netherlands, teenage pregnancy is virtually absent. Levines study makes it very clear that abstinence education is teaching children nothing about sex. Worse though, this education is lethal, leaving children ignorant about a practice they are likely to engage in and open to pregnancy, disease and exploitation. George Bush's recent efforts to http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,
710335,00.html enforce abstinence education outside of the US instead of comprehensive sex ed. illustrate how urgent a debate around this issue is.

Levine constantly couches these findings in socio-economic terms, too. She makes it clear that problems like early pregnancy and HIV are informed by race, ethnicity, social class and poverty. Poor, alienated, non-white and marginalized children are more likely to be trapped in a life of poverty by their ignorance of contraceptive and abortive methods. They are also more likely to be victims of sexual violence and disease. Ignorance of sexual technique, safety and variety not only has socio-economic implications, but interpersonal ones too. How sex ed. shapes a boy's or girl's desire and their intimate relationships is also one of the many issues Levine discusses. This shaping of desire leads to inequality and a failure to explore other sexual forms which strangles emotional expression and self-knowledge.

I would like to write further about the
http://www.upress.umn.edu/HarmfultoMinorsoverview.html variety of subjects Levine covers, and the evidence she uses to back her claims (and she always backs her claims with case studies, statistics and other empirical data); but perhaps it is best to conclude with a summary of what Levine is advocating. Clearly, Levine is advocating free speech first and foremost. Free speech protects those educators who want to teach children about safe sex, abortion and other forms of sexuality. It protects a child's right to surf the Internet for information about sex without the poorly conceived and designed filters the US is installing in its public libraries, or in its homes. Levine is advocating a comprehensive approach to sex ed. where children are armed with the knowledge to understand and protect themselves and others. Levine also seems to approve of the Netherlands approach to sexual consent. There, the age of consent in twelve, though parents can legally intervene in any relationship they suppose is harmful until
the person is sixteen; then they receive full sexual autonomy.

Levine urges us to recognise that masturbation is normal and healthy, even in the smallest children; so is sexual play (something anthropologists call sexual rehearsal play) and sexual curiosity. Levine also advocates wider availability of abortion as a legal right which requires no cost, apology or regrets. It is perhaps partially this advocacy that has led to such a virulent attack against the book by the American Right. It is also likely that conservative and puritanical forces perceived these books as dangerous, as it suggests alternative forms of family which are not nuclear or heterosexual. Levine advocates a society of informed children who will know about sex when they ask about it and who can play sexually without the teenage pressures of penetrative sex. Levine calls this play outercourse and in older children this is usually mutual masturbation, oral sex and other types of non-penetrative caresses and kisses. Outercourse has lower dangers of disease and no risk of pregnancy, and it encourages its
participants to communicate what they like and don't like. It allows them to learn about others' feelings and their own. What Levine does advocate is raising children in a happy, healthy, loving and informed environment, which is a safe environment, with lots of information, affection, care and respect.

Related links:
Websites recommended by Levine for kids sex ed. purposes:

  http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/ Go Ask Alice!
  http://www.gurl.com/ gURL.com
  http://www.sxetc.org/ SEX,ETC.

Topically related links:

Another Harmful to Minors book review: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12960
What Levine is Really Saying

Discussion on child pornography and erotica:
http://genius.ucsd.edu/~john/p/libuniv_dir/OnChildErotica1
Professors of Liberty

http://www.upress.umn.edu/HarmfultoMinorsQandA.html
Q&A with Judith Levine

http://www.violence.de
The Origins of Peace and Violence

http://www.tegenwicht.org/13_rbt_eng/rbt_files.htm
The RBT files

http://www.actwin.com/eatonohio/gay/consent.htm
Age of Consent Across the US

http://www.nospank.net/
Project NoSpank

http://www.cirp.org/
Circumcision Information and Resource Page

Topically related Kuro5hin articles and discussions: