An inability to empathize with those who have experienced harm should be a red flag for all. The people at this conference are making all these excuses for their behavior and using objectifying or vague language that imply a complete lack of empathy. Children are utterly dependent on adults for food, shelter, and safety which means they're vulnerable, extremely susceptible to adult influence, and cannot provide meaningful consent. Their dependency is what makes child abuse in all its forms so egregious and harmful.
This rush to "destigmatize" needs to be examined. A certain amount of stigma around suicide has been identified as a protective factor against it (i.e. in cultures or religions where it is stigmatized, there's less of it). Stigma may arise due to recognition of actual harm and a societal commitment towards trying to prevent said harm. I wish there was MORE stigma around violence and all forms of abuse but our society seems to accept and even promote harming others "if it's justified" and that is exactly what the people at this conference are doing--justifying harm or obscuring the harm child abuse causes.
Yeah, this idea that destigmatization is inherently always good ignores the protective function of many social stigmas. I’m not a social conservative, but I think it’s important to look at whether a given social taboo or stigma still has an important and irreplaceable role before dismantling it. And this one certainly does. I’m even open to the idea that this is a “preference” that is involuntarily determined (though I think like most sexual interests, wallowing in it is likely to make it worse) and that there could be some way to handle it that resulted in less abuse along with less stigma. But whatever the hell this conference was, it wasn’t that. And in no universe would it involve giving them access to and influence over vulnerable children. In fact just the attempt should be a screaming warning that they have no intention of behaving ethically. I have sympathy for people prone to addiction but I wouldn’t give them a job at a pharmacy.
Some appalling concepts describing how the paedophile is maligned and discriminated against. Children are able to consent to any number of things, in that they indicate agreement to do something or say yes. But under what circumstances? There are endless accounts from young people and adults reflecting on the sexual abuse they experienced in childhood.
All were damaged by it, some unable to have emotional and sexual relationships, partly because of what that requires them to relinquish. Many people who've had their vulnerability exploited can't allow themselves to be vulnerable, despite there being no intention to exploit it on the part of the other person.
Some are unable to ever recover, and the responsibility for this lies with the person they might have said yes to, or put up no apparent resistance.
It's stunning how one whiff of setting boundaries for trans people, and the clerisy try to scorch the earth of your career, that of your partner, your business... and yet this kind of academic "discourse" has been going on for decades without a problem. How?
I watched a documentary about paedophiles in America a while back. It focussed on their punishment after conviction and release from prison. The fact that they were unable to live within a certain distance from schools, couldn't get jobs etc, meant that they had created enclaves for themselves, on the edge of society on very low incomes. Whilst I obviously abhor their crimes, and even their thoughts, this treatment appeared inhumane, and worse, probably made their likelihood to reoffend greater, given that they were living with other paedophiles. I wished that these desperately unhappy individuals (and many did express sincere regret and sometimes hatred for being the way they were) could get some form of treatment for the fact that they were sexually attracted to children. But there seems nothing can be done. Lock them up and throw away the key? Chemical castration? We are right to focus on the victims of their crimes but some kind of solution as to what to do with perpetrators would also be helpful.
How do they get that way? Treatment would be good but prevention better. More important though is that we shut down this attempt to normalise it. Society stigmatises for a reason. Right now we are rightfully stigmatising Mermaids and let us hope this is enough to see it come to an end.
Yes, I was thinking about the creation of paedophilia too after I posted this. I've read accounts of porn addicts who found themselves led to more extreme types of porn involving children as they became more "immune" to milder forms. Online pornography is a huge evil in this world.
Stigma and shame are important for societal function, queer theory seeks to normalise behaviour that would previously been seen as shameful.
I recently read an article about a self-castration cult in the States -- the rabbit-holes we fall down, once on this path! Aside from the predictable problems arising from unqualified enthusiasts going at it with scalpels, it struck me that done properly it's a simple and safe procedure.
An inability to empathize with those who have experienced harm should be a red flag for all. The people at this conference are making all these excuses for their behavior and using objectifying or vague language that imply a complete lack of empathy. Children are utterly dependent on adults for food, shelter, and safety which means they're vulnerable, extremely susceptible to adult influence, and cannot provide meaningful consent. Their dependency is what makes child abuse in all its forms so egregious and harmful.
This rush to "destigmatize" needs to be examined. A certain amount of stigma around suicide has been identified as a protective factor against it (i.e. in cultures or religions where it is stigmatized, there's less of it). Stigma may arise due to recognition of actual harm and a societal commitment towards trying to prevent said harm. I wish there was MORE stigma around violence and all forms of abuse but our society seems to accept and even promote harming others "if it's justified" and that is exactly what the people at this conference are doing--justifying harm or obscuring the harm child abuse causes.
Yeah, this idea that destigmatization is inherently always good ignores the protective function of many social stigmas. I’m not a social conservative, but I think it’s important to look at whether a given social taboo or stigma still has an important and irreplaceable role before dismantling it. And this one certainly does. I’m even open to the idea that this is a “preference” that is involuntarily determined (though I think like most sexual interests, wallowing in it is likely to make it worse) and that there could be some way to handle it that resulted in less abuse along with less stigma. But whatever the hell this conference was, it wasn’t that. And in no universe would it involve giving them access to and influence over vulnerable children. In fact just the attempt should be a screaming warning that they have no intention of behaving ethically. I have sympathy for people prone to addiction but I wouldn’t give them a job at a pharmacy.
Some appalling concepts describing how the paedophile is maligned and discriminated against. Children are able to consent to any number of things, in that they indicate agreement to do something or say yes. But under what circumstances? There are endless accounts from young people and adults reflecting on the sexual abuse they experienced in childhood.
All were damaged by it, some unable to have emotional and sexual relationships, partly because of what that requires them to relinquish. Many people who've had their vulnerability exploited can't allow themselves to be vulnerable, despite there being no intention to exploit it on the part of the other person.
Some are unable to ever recover, and the responsibility for this lies with the person they might have said yes to, or put up no apparent resistance.
It's stunning how one whiff of setting boundaries for trans people, and the clerisy try to scorch the earth of your career, that of your partner, your business... and yet this kind of academic "discourse" has been going on for decades without a problem. How?
I watched a documentary about paedophiles in America a while back. It focussed on their punishment after conviction and release from prison. The fact that they were unable to live within a certain distance from schools, couldn't get jobs etc, meant that they had created enclaves for themselves, on the edge of society on very low incomes. Whilst I obviously abhor their crimes, and even their thoughts, this treatment appeared inhumane, and worse, probably made their likelihood to reoffend greater, given that they were living with other paedophiles. I wished that these desperately unhappy individuals (and many did express sincere regret and sometimes hatred for being the way they were) could get some form of treatment for the fact that they were sexually attracted to children. But there seems nothing can be done. Lock them up and throw away the key? Chemical castration? We are right to focus on the victims of their crimes but some kind of solution as to what to do with perpetrators would also be helpful.
How do they get that way? Treatment would be good but prevention better. More important though is that we shut down this attempt to normalise it. Society stigmatises for a reason. Right now we are rightfully stigmatising Mermaids and let us hope this is enough to see it come to an end.
Yes, I was thinking about the creation of paedophilia too after I posted this. I've read accounts of porn addicts who found themselves led to more extreme types of porn involving children as they became more "immune" to milder forms. Online pornography is a huge evil in this world.
Stigma and shame are important for societal function, queer theory seeks to normalise behaviour that would previously been seen as shameful.
I recently read an article about a self-castration cult in the States -- the rabbit-holes we fall down, once on this path! Aside from the predictable problems arising from unqualified enthusiasts going at it with scalpels, it struck me that done properly it's a simple and safe procedure.
Julie, the link at the top of the article "mermaids are surely finished" appears to link to a private page which I can't access.