"Empowering Pedophiles"

Radical academics are uprooting the moral framework that protects children from abuse

Proponents of radical sexual revisionism are on the march again. In "Empowering Pedophiles,” Dr. Anne Hendershott, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Public Affairs, warns that "the real outrage on the child-abuse front is occurring in academia — a drive to redefine pedophilia as innocuous 'intergenerational intimacy.'”

Hendershott points out that at the core of the argument for pedophilia as a morally neutral act is the redefinition of childhood innocence as a socially constructed fantasy. Hendershott writes,

“The revisionists even argue that efforts to protect children are the real danger. In her 2002 book ‘Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children from Sex’ (University of Minnesota Press), Judith Levine offered a “radical, refreshing and long overdue reassessment of how we think and act about children’s and teen’s sexuality.” In interviews, she claimed that, while ‘we do have to protect children from real dangers, that doesn’t mean protecting some fantasy of their sexual innocence.’”

Additionally, the American Psychological Association provided cover for pedophilia when it released a study which “suggested that such abuse does not cause harm and recommended that pedophilia should instead be given a ‘value neutral’ label like ‘adult-child sex.’”

“It seems unimaginable that the likes of Henley will ever change our near-universal abhorrence of pedophilia,” Hendershott writes, “but the drive to redefine it may yet influence elite opinion or the courts.”

Click here to read the full article on nypost.com.

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