Notes[*] I would like to thank Barbara Baird for her critical commentary on a draft of this article, and Graham Willett for his assistance with the research I conducted for it at the Australian Lessbian and Gay Archives. [*1] Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality, Volume I: An Introduction - Translated by Robert Hurley (New York, Vintage 1980), 43. [*2] Havelock Ellis, Psychology of Sex: A Manual for Students (London: William Heinemann, 1933), 129. [*3] Sigmund Freud, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality (1905), The Pelican Freud Library, Vol.7: On Sexuality (Harmmondsworth: Penguin, 1977), 60. To quote him in full: 'Cases in which sexually immature persons (children) are chosen as sexual objects are instantly judged as sporadic aberrations. It is only exceptionally that children are the exclusive sexual objects in such a case. They usually come to play that part when someone who is cowardly or has become impotent adopts them as a substitute, or when an urgent instinct (one which will not allow of postponement) cannot at the moment get possession of any more appropriate object'. [*4] James R,
Kincaid, Child-Loving: The Erotic Child and Victorian Culture
(New York: Routledge, 1992); [*5] While I rely on an Australian case study to illustrate my argument, the emergence of the modern identity allegory of the paedophile is part of a broader Western phenomenon. In fact, the Australian example not only mirrors but is also significantly influenced by both British and North American developments. [*6] Richard von Krafft-Ebing, PSychopathia Sexualis: With Especial Reference to the Antipathic Sexual Instinct, A Medico Forensic Study (New York: Arcade, 1998), 369. [*7] Ibid,. 369-74. [*8] Ibid,. 369. Krafft-Ebing does provide a caution regarding paedophilia: 'At any rate these unfortunate beings should not always be looked upon as a common danger to the welfare of the community' (374). However, in the context of his overall work and discussion, in his observation of paedophilia's relative rarity, and in his emphasis on the silliness and moral weakness associated with paedophilia, perhaps his use of the phrase 'should always' in the quote above might be read in some ways as a call for society to recognise the danger paedophilia poses precisely because it is not recognising it as such. [*9] Ibid., 53. [*10] Ibid., 371-2. [*11] Arnold Davidson, 'Closing Up the Corpses: Diseases of Sexuality and the Emergence of the Psychiatric Style of Reasoning'. in Meaning and Method: Essays in Honor of Holiary Putnam, ed. George Boolos (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). [*12] I am indebted here to Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's discussion of modern homo/heterosexual definition in Epistemology of the Closet (Berkely: University of California Press, 1990), 10-11. [*13] On the
reverse discourse of homosexuality, see Foucault, History of
Sexuality, 101. I agree with historians who have challenged the
primacy accorded to the medical model of homosexuality. That is, I agree
with Frederick Silverstolpe and Randolph Trumbach that medical
discourses were not in any straightforward way responsible for the
invention of the category of the 'homosexual', but that these discourses
were themselves shaped by the self-representations and behaviours of
those engaged in homosexuality. Frederic Silverstolpe, 'Benkert was not
a Doctor: On the Non Medical Origins of the Homosexual Category in the
Nineteenth Century', in Homosexuality, Which Homosexuality?,
International Conference on Gay and Lesbian Studies, Vol. 1 (Amsterdam:
Free University, 1987); [*14] I am not suggesting that a reverse discourse either simply proceeds from or is proceeded by psycho-medical terminology. Rather, I would conceive of the relationship often as a mutually constituting one, whereby psycho-medical categories and categories of self identification are both causes and effects of each other. In other words, psycho-medical terminology both shapes and is simultaneously shaped by subjectivity. Having said that, however, one must in my view leave open the possibility that before the invention of the 19th century sexology there might have been individuals who conceived of themselves as being wholly psychically different to others due to an exclusive homosexual desire. [*15] Jenkins. [*16] Benjamin Karplan, The Sexual Offender and His Offences (New York: Julian, 1954), 239. [*17] Of course, it
is certainly the case today that paedophilia, in clinical terms, is
subsumed by the generic category of 'paraphilia', which includes such
things as exhibitionism, fetishism, sadism, masochism, transvestism,
frotteurism and voyeurism. See American Psychiatric Association, Diagnosic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. (Washington, FC:
Author, 1994). [*18] Quoted in Jenkins, 102 [*19] Eugene Revitch and Rosalee Weiss, 'The Paedophile Offender', Diseases of the Nervous System (February 1962): 73. [*20] Jenkins, 102. [*21] Revitch and Weiss, 75. [*22] Ibid, 75, 78. [*23] Steven Angelides, 'Feminism, Child Sexual Abuse, and the Erasure of Child Sexuality', GLQm 10, no. 2 (2004): 141-77. [*24] Revitch and Weiss, 78. [*25] See Anna C. Salter, Treating Child Sex Offenders and Victims: A Practical Guide (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1988); Linda Gordon, 'The Politics of Child Sexual Abuse: Notes from American History', Feminist Review, no.28 (January 1988): 56-64; Estelle B. Freedman, 'Uncontrolled Desires: The Response of the Sexual Psychopath, 1920-1960', Journal of American History, 74 (1987): 83-106 [*26] Revitch and Weiss, 74. [*27] Steven Angelides, A History of Bisexuality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001), 23-48. [*28] Elaine Showalter, Sexual Anarchy: Gender and Culture at the Fin de Siècle (London: Virago, 1992). [*29] Angelides, History of Bisexuality, 23-48. [*30] Robert W. Connell, Masculinities (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1995). [*31] Of course, sexuality was also shaped profoundly by relations of class, race and Empire. [*32] Michael Kimmel, Manhood in America: A Cultural History (New York: The Free Press, 1996), 263. [*33] Jenkins, 1998, 156-63; Florence Rush, Best Kept Secret: Sexual Abuse of Children. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1980), 187-90. [*34] David Thorstad, 'A Statement to the Gay Liberation Movement on the Issue of Man-Boy Love,' Gay Community News 6 (January 1979) [*35] Gail Mason and Anna Chapman, 'Defining Sexual Harassment: A History of the Commonwealth Legislation and it's Critiques', Working Paper No.27, Center for Employment and Labour Relations Law (March 2003): 1-25. [*36] Graham Willet, Living Out Loud: A History of Gay and Lesbian Activism in Australia (St. Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 2000). [*37] Angelides, 'Feminism, Child Sexual Abuse'. [*38] Quoted in Dorothy Scott and Shurlee Swain, Confronting Cruelty: Historical Perspectives on Child Protection in Australia (Melbourne University Press, 2002), 151. [*39] Speaking at
the Rape Conference of the New York Radical Feminists, Florence Rush's
remarks were typical of anti-rape movement sentiment. She argued that
rape 'is permitted because it is an unspoken but prominent factor in
socialising and preparing the female to accept a subordinate role'.
Quoted in Jenkins, 127. [*40] Jenkins, 135. [*41] This term is taken from the work of Paul Gebhard and his colleagues in the 1960s, who prefigured the feminist child sexual abuse movement. See Paul Gebhard et al., Sex Offenders: An Analysis of Types (New York: Harper and Row, 1965), 71. [*42] Alliance of Revolting Feminists Manifesto, Melbourne Women's Liberation Newsletter (Melbourne: June 1984): 12-13 [*43] Quoted in Jenkins, 137. [*44] Alliance of Revolting Feminists Manifesto, 12-13. [*45] Margaret Harris, 'Child sex cases divide British'. Sydney Morning Herald, 4 July 1987, 28: Richard West, 'Seeing child abuse as a feminist plot', Sydney Morning Herald, 4 July 1987, 29. [*46] Richard
Coleman. 'Child abuse documentry lurched into the tabloid telly trap', Sydney
Morning Herald, 14 November 1987, 82. [*47] Angelides, 'Feminism, Child Sexual Abuse'. [*48] Gordon; Erna Olafson, 'When Paradigms Collide: Roland Summit and the Rediscovery of Child Sexual Abuse', in Critical Issues in Child Sexual Abuse: Historical, Legal and Psychological Perspectives, ed. Jon R. Conte (London: Sage, 2002). [*49] Judith Lewis
Herman and Lisa Hirschman, Father-Daughter Incest (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 1981); [*50] Roland C. Summit, 'The Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome', Child Abuse and Neglect 7 (1983): 182. [*51] Gordon, 58; Scott and Swain, 42, 69-71. [*52] See, for example, 'Hospitals report an "astonishing" rise in sexual abuse of children', Sydney Morning Herald, 24 July 1986, 3. [*53] 'Scars of sexual abuse heal slowly', Sydney Morning Herald, 6 September 1986, 8. [*54] Scott and Swain, 162. [*55] 'Scars of sexual abuse heal slowly'. [*56] 'Campaign
opens to counter sexual abuse of children', Sydney Morning Herald,
1 October 1986, 21. [*57] Susan Faludi, Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women (New York: Crown, 1991). [*58] Kimmel, 299. [*59] Quoted in Kimmel, 302-3. [*60] Anxieties
about normative masculinity and the impact of feminism are palpable in
the Australian media during the 1980s. For typical examples, see [*61] Kimmel, 292.
For Australian media examples of the figure of the wimps, of 'soft
masculinity' and the negative framing of the 'sensitive new age guy',
see the review of the James Bond film The Living Daylights in [*62] For a psycho-historical reading of scapegoating, see Lloyd de Mause, 'The Psychogenic Theory of History', The Journal of Psychohistory 25 (1997): 154. [*63] Angelides, 'Historicising Affect'. [*64] On the erasure of child sexuality, see Angelides, 'Feminism, Child Sexual Abuse'. [*65] See, for
example, the comments by the Deputy Chair of the Human Rights Commission
in 'Gays and "Scapegoats of '85"'., Outrage, no. 25
(June 1985): 5. [*66] Quoted in New South Wales Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), 9 March 1982, 2231. [*67] Crimes (Homosexual Behaviour) Amendment Bill, Second Reading, New South Wales Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), New South Wales, 18 February 1982, 2109. [*68] Crimes (Homosexual Behaviour) Amendment Bill, 2127. [*69] The Queensland legislation set the age of consent for homosexual sex other than anal sex at sixteen, but made anal sex for men and women under the age of eighteen illegal. See Willet, Living out Loud, 224. [*70] Ibid., 155-6. [*71] Law Reform
(Decriminalisation of Sodomy) Act, Western Australia, 1989. [*72] Gay Communities News, February 1981, 5. The publication Gay Community News (hereafter GCN). [*73] 'Sex -- out of the shelter shed, into the classroom', 22 February 1980, 15. [*74] GCN, June 1982. [*75] Ibid., 16. [*76] See Graham Willet, '"Proud and Employed": The Gay and Lesbian Movement and the Victorian Teachers Union in the 1970s', Labour History: A Journal of Labour and Social History, no. 76 (May 1999): 78-94. [*77] Gary Jaynes, 'Young Gay and Proud -- 20 Years On', unpublished and undated manuscript, held in the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives, 2. Given the title of the article it seems that it was written some time around 1998. [*78] Quoted in Jaynes, 4. [*79] Jaynes, 5. [*80] GCN, February 1981, 5. [*81] Ibid., 6. [*82] For examples
of discussion in the Australian gay press, [*83] Newsletter of the 5th National Homosexual Conference. 5 August 1979. [*84] Gay Left, no. 7 (Winter 1978/79). [*85] Dowsett, 'Old Traps for New Players', 26. [*86] Committee to Raise Education Standards, 'The Continuing Homosexual Offensive. Next Targe: Anti-discrimination', 1-7. The pamphlet is held in the Australian Lesbian and Gay Archives. [*87] Ibid., 5. [*88] Ibid., 2. [*89] Ibid., 4. [*90] Ibid., 5. [*91] John Cozijn, 'Is Boy Love a Gay Issue?' Campaign (June 1983): 12-13. [*92] Adam Carr, 'Delta Squad's "Child Sex Ring"'., Outrage, (Dec/Jan 1983/84): 6. [*93] Quoted in Carr, 6. [*94] These
comments were reported in The Age, November: 1983, 3. [*95] Thorne claims that her comments were quoted out of context. [*96] 'Sex talk teacher taken from class', The Age, 12 November 1983, 3. [*97] 'Govt settles job dispute with teacher', Courier-Mail, 5 December 1986. [*98] 'Teaching Deal Ends Three-year Thorne Saga', Outrage, no. 44 (1987): 8. [*99] Quoted in 'Vic Child Sex Report Exonerates Gays, slams Pedophiles', Outrage (June 1986), 7. [*100] Ibid., 7. [*101] A. N. Groth
and H. J. Birnbaum, 'Adult Sexual Orientation and Attraction to Underage
Persons', Archives of Sexual Behaviour 7 (1978): 175-81; [*102] Neil
McConaghy, 'Penile Response Conditioning and its Relationship to
Aversion Therapy in Homosexual', Behaviour Therapy 1 (1970). [*103] McConagy, Sexual
Behaviour, 312; [*104] Summarising
Groth's account of the causal factors involved in regressed offender
behaviour, Howells, 78, notes 'the precipitating events as physical,
social, sexual, marital, financial and vocational crises to which the
offender fails to adapt'. [*105] At the time many gay groups, including the Australian Paedophile Support Group, argued that 'Gays have once again been used as scapegoats to misdirect attention away from the real exploiters of children who are commonly fathers and family members'. See Carr, 6. |