Sent: 30 August 2011 23:49

It is quite possible that the language you refer to was required by Times
editors in order to get this piece published. If I attempt, in a parallel
case, to write in a mainstream publication about the sex industry or
migrants who sell sex _without_ making a pious statement opposing child
prostitution and slavery, I won't be published. This syndrome is
well-known by those working in ngos as well - even if their experience is
100% with, for example, teenage runaways who don't want to go home, and
that is who they want to talk about, they are required to make a
disclaimer about being opposed to child prostitution, pedophilia and so
on.

Laura
http://www.lauraagustin.com



El Mar, 30 de Agosto de 2011, 12:57, Hera Cook escribió:
> ________________________________________
> From: David Sonenschein [sonend@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2011 3:53 AM
> Laura Agustin is correct in calling our attention to Professor Roger
> Lancaster's August 21 opinion piece in the New York Times. Such views are
> still historically rare at the level of popular consciousness as the
> hysterical mentality continues to hold firmly to its myths and
> suppressions. The very few liberal academics who feel an unease almost
> entirely confine their critiques to their own insulated world with little
> effect beyond adding another quarter inch to one's CV. Lancaster has,
> rather courageously, chosen to extend the criticism to a mass audience.
>
> As an example, the Sex Offender Registry in Texas is notoriously befouled
> by zealousness and contaminated by massive errors. An editorial in our
> local (Hearst) newspaper tried to appear reformist by making a call that
> only the truly guilty be placed on the rolls. I wrote a critical response
> which they refused to print, and within a couple of days featured a
> commentary by a local child service agency urging the villagers  to
> "battle sex abuse" by, among other things, believing a child
> unconditionally, by watching for signs of "abuse", and by reporting any
> and all suspicions to the authorities.
>
> For many of us on HistSex, however, Lancaster's points are hardly new, and
> for some of us his approach in its bow to conventionality is severely
> disappointing. Without nit-picking his whole article, I am distressed by
> Professor Lancaster's language. As a fellow anthropologist, he should show
> more consciousness of this. He refers to "perpetrators of sexual abuse,"
> and states that "No one can doubt that child sexual abuse is traumatic and
> devastating." Aside from the fact that there are considerable doubts about
> this, this is the language of the "loyal opposition," speaking of
> efficiency, of technological and bureaucratic expertise rather than a
> critique of basic scientific and ideological issues (the Australian
> situation reported by Gavriel Ansara points to this). He buys into the
> rhetoric of the hysteria and actually reinforces the very panic he appears
> to criticize. Adding the weight of his institutional power base to his
> remarks  fortifies the conventional view against authentic critiques.
>
> I look forward to reading his latest book and comparing it to other
> liberal reviews; I hope it will have much to offer in making some kind of
> scientific and humane progress in all this. His review of the issues,
> though basically unconfronted, are valid. Most troubling is the spread of
> "indefinite detention" powers. I noted long ago (1987, J Sex Res) that
> police in many jurisdictions keep lists of suspected "pedophiles" and at
> least in the 1980s some prosecutors attempted to pass laws authorizing
> their apprehension and detention solely on the basis of being on the list.
> I myself, due to my (admittedly provocative) activism, have been reported
> to the police by a young and under-educated social worker as a "pedophile"
> and have subject to entrapment attempts and surveillance. Professor
> Lancaster seems above this (so far), and I hope he continues to develop
> his views.
>
> David Sonenschein
> Independent Scholar
> sonend@yahoo.com
>
>

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