Jump to content

Pedophile movement

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Get-back-world-respect (talk | contribs) at 07:10, 13 July 2004 (→The History of the Childlove Movement). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Childlover is a term adopted by many pedophiles (those sexually attracted to children who have not reached puberty) and ephebophiles (those sexually attracted to adolescents generally below the age of consent). It is widely seen as a euphemism of criminals justifying criminality.

The use of the term is intended to generically replace boylover or girllover, most notably those who participate in online communities, as an attempt to define the terms used to refer to themselves. Many childlovers argue that the term denotes a spiritual and emotional attraction to young people that transcends the physical or sexual attraction normally attributed to pedophiles.Some ephebophiles object to the term childlover since they are attracted only to adolescents, whom they consider to be physically and emotionally adults rather than children.

Childlovers often reject the word pedophile as they believe that societal misconceptions about pedophilia have so tainted the word that it no longer reflects its original meaning. They argue that for most people, pedophile is synonymous with child molester. They argue that children are able to consent to sexual relations if properly educated. Since childlovers claim to support only consensual and non-coercive relationships with minors, they do not wish to be associated with the word pedophile.

The History of the Childlove Movement

There have been varying degrees of pedophile activism since the 1970s. In the 1970s, the locus of activities was in Western Europe, primarily in the Netherlands. Here, a number of researchers, amongst them Frits Bernard, Theo Sandfort, Edward Brongersma and Frans Gieles wrote a significant number of papers on the topic, both from a theoretical and a practical standpoint. A number of papers were produced discussing the effects of adult-child sexual interactions, using data from childlovers as well as from adults and young people who had been involved in relationships with adults as children or adolescents.

In the late 1970s, the locus of activity shifted to Great Britain and to the United States with the formation of the Paedophile Information Exchange, or PIE, in London in 1977, and of the North American Man/Boy Love Association, or NAMBLA, in Boston in 1978. Both of these groups achieved relative notoriety in the early 1980s due to a public outcry against them. The PIE capitulated to public pressure and disbanded in 1985. NAMBLA still exists today, but was dealt a major blow when a man convicted of the rape and murder of Jeffrey Curley in 1997 was accused of having ties to the group.

The 1980s saw a number of other advocacy groups come into existence. The most significant of these were MARTIJN in the Netherlands in 1982 and the Danish Pedophile Association in 1985. This was followed by the formation of IPCE, an umbrella organization and repository for pedophilia-related research, in the early 1990s. Of these groups, both MARTIJN and IPCE are still functioning, while the DPA decided to disband in early 2004.

The 1990s saw the locus of activity shift once again, to Montreal, Canada. It also saw the formation of online communities of childlovers. The Ganymede Collective was formed in 1995 as a forum for boylovers to meet in real life. Out of this group emerged the first online communities, some of which eventually coalesced under the umbrella of Free Spirits.

Objectives of the Movement

While childlovers are not in absolute agreement on what actions should be taken, most of them agree with some or all of the following objectives:

Childlovers tend to fall into one of two schools of thought about these objectives. The first school advocates full youth rights and abolition of consent laws whilst the other advocates only the de-criminalization of child pornography possession.

The primary misconceptions that childlovers usually seek to dispel are that they seek only a sexual relationship with the child and that they seek to engage in sexual activities that could be physically harmful to the child. They argue in the first case that the physical relationship is simply a manifestation of the emotional and spiritual love that exists between the participants, rather than being the raison d'etre of the relationship. In the second case, many childlovers wish to point out that they do not seek penetrative sexual relations with pre-pubescent children, but only to engage in what they would consider to be age-appropriate activities such as snuggling, kissing, fondling or oral sex.

Childlovers point out that there is ample scientific and medical evidence that shows quite clearly that children are sexual from a very early age. Therefore, they believe that there is no harm in a child engaging in sexual activities as long as there is informed consent. Most childlovers do not support age of consent laws, arguing that with proper sexual education, children can be capable of consenting to intimate physical activities.

Ephebophiles are also largely opposed to consent legislation. They argue that in former times, puberty was considered to be the threshold of adulthood in many societies and that it is a natural indication that the body is sexually mature. They believe that ages of consent are legal definitions that are both arbitrary and discriminatory. Critics point out that puberty does not end at the same age for everyone and that frequent unrational behaviour is a well known property of pubescents.

There are also a number of efforts underway to define the ethics of childlove and to create an ethical framework in which consensual adult-child relationships could take place. Much of these efforts are based upon the works of Frans Gieles and Gerald Roelofs. The primary efforts have taken place under the auspices of IPCE, the Human Face of Pedophilia and CLogo.

Activities of the Movement

The primary activity of the movement at the current time is support for childlovers. Through online communities, childlovers attempt to provide moral support to others who would otherwise be reluctant to discuss their attractions for fear of being reported, ostracized or persecuted. To this end, some organizations provide online counseling and suicide prevention services.

IPCE continues to promote academic inquiry into pedophilia, collecting and commenting upon works by its members and other academics into the fields of pedophilia and child sexuality. Other groups, such as CLogo and MARTIJN, are engaged in public awareness campaigns, which they achieve by producing and distributing flyers and pamphlets as well as through direct media contact.

More radical elements have chosen to the out themselves publicly, as is the case with Krumme 13 and The Human Face of Pedophilia.

Robin Sharpe, a boylover in Canada, successfully challenged child pornography laws in the Canadian Supreme Court in 2002, arguing that his fictional writings were not illegal because they had artistic merit.

Symbols

A blue spiral-shaped triangle symbol was designed by an individual using the online nickname "Kalos" in conjunction with Free Spirits, the oldest and largest online boylove community in existence.

A similar logo, a heart within a heart, was developed by the girllove community to symbolize consensual love between adults and girls.

Some pedophiles labeling themselves boylovers and girllovers celebrate their condition. International BoyLove Day is celebrated on the first Saturday after the summer solstice. This is the day boylovers celebrate their attraction, often by lighting blue candles discreetly in public. Alice Day, April the 25th, is a day of celebration to girllovers. Lewis Carroll, who many girl-lovers believe was attracted to young girls, met Alice Liddell, the girl for whom he wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, on 25 April 1856.

Famous Boy and Girl Lovers

The ephebophilic philosopher Karl Pontus Wikner described himself as a boylover and his feelings as boylove. An example of a self-declared girllover and pedophile is Lindsay Ashford.

Books on boylove

See also

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pedophile_movement&oldid=4611367"