Brief Glossary (see "Rules
and Issues"
on this Web site for details):
intergen - intergenerational
relationships; social and other
meaningful interactions between boys and men
CAI - The Child-Abuse-Industry
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Introduction
Boys and men have been around about as long as girls and women.
How's that for an introductory sentence!
In most cultures today, and throughout history, the physiological
differences are accompanied by culturally-determined differences
which we call "Roles".
In truth, females and males are more alike physically than they
are different.
Two arms, two legs, two eyes, one nose, skin, hair, and so on,
are shared characteristics.
Even those features that are different are in a way just variations
of the basic structure.
Still, it is almost always a sure bet that we can tell whether
an individual is a girl or boy from the moment of birth, even
earlier in many cases.
Roles, on the other hand, are a much more complex issue, with
lots of overlap and lots of exceptions and really lots of
misconceptions.
Lay on top of that the whole notion of interpersonal relationships,
and you've got -- well, you've got the "Human Condition",
for better or worse.
These pages present, in outline form,
a brief history -- by a non-historian --
of boys and men in society -- by a non-sociologist.
What I mean by "boys and men" is their relationship
to each other and their interaction with each other during
the life cycle.
There are two reasons for focusing on boys and men in this way.
First, all men were once boys.
Second, all boys who are lucky enough to survive childhood
become men.
(Transgender people, of course, are respected exceptions to these
generalizations, and will be acknowledged at appropriate points
as we go along.)
Girls and women also deserve discussions like this one.
As I have explained elsewhere, my feeling is that any such discussion
of girls and women that is attempted by a man is inadequate at best.
It's not that men can't write or think well about women, it's just
that women can do it much better.
By the same token, women writing about boys and men in my judgment
can provide an interesting and useful perspective, but cannot
achieve the same depth of understanding as one who is, so to speak,
a "member" of the group being discussed.
Some feminists will disagree. Fine.
Let them try and explain what it feels like to be an 8th-grader
in a co-ed gym class and have a popular girl publicly notice your
spontaneous erection.
Speaking of feminists, I am one, with credentials. I taught
Women's Studies -- now called Gender Studies -- at two universities
in the 1980s, and I remain totally committed to fairness and
equality between the sexes.
There are, however, different types of feminism,
and various, sometimes unwanted, consequences of even well-intentioned
feminist agendæ.
And so, we survey attitudes about boys and men throughout history.
To do this, I will look at published sources and quotes from
famous and/or insightful people, and try to compare various
periods in human history with each other and with the present day.
Historical Overview
NOTE: the links and references indicated in this outline are by
no means a complete list of the best available sources; they
are drawn primarily from the journals that
are indexed and available at this site, and the
related bibliography stored here.
The scholar who is interested will, of course, use these
references only as a starting point for further research.
- Thera (Santorini) 1500-900 B.C.E.
- Pharaonic Egypt
- Greece / Rome / Ancient Europe
- The Greeks are discussed everywhere as a primary example of
boy-love in the ancient world;
see the Union Index at
this Web site under "Rare Documents . . ."
for specific references (search "Greece/Greek/Greeks")
- Likewise, the Romans are often discussed; see the abovementioned
index (search "Rome/Roman")
-
Pederasty in Celtic pre-Roman Gaul (Western Europe) provided an initiation
into adult life [Paidika6:32-40]
(NOTE: links to Paidika articles have been
removed by request of Paidika Board of Directors)
- Christianity
- The influence of Christianity on issues relating to
sexuality in general, and boy-love in particular,
is discussed in terms of every era since the birth of
Christ, including, of course, the present day;
see the Union Index at
this Web site under "Rare Documents . . ."
for specific references (search "Christian/Christianity")
-
Book Review: Childhood and Sexuality: A Radical Christian
Approach (1992), by John L. Randall [Paidika10:85-88]
(NOTE: links to Paidika articles have been
removed by request of Paidika Board of Directors)
- Turkey / Persia / Afghanistan / Arabia (Medieval Islam)
- Italian Renaissance
- Elizabethan England
- 17th and 18th Century European Attitudes, the Transformation of
Education, and Paedagogical Eros
-
Jérôme Duquesnoy (1602-1654), Flemish sculptor
executed for "sodomy"
[Paidika5:41-57]
-
Rousseau's Emile (1762) as turning point toward
viewing children as "innocent" and in need of protection
[Paidika2:2-12]; see also
Paidika3:23 for a critique of Rousseau's ideas in an
ethological/ethnological perspective; and
Paidka8:23 for a historical perspective
(NOTE: links to Paidika articles have been
removed by request of Paidika Board of Directors)
-
Essay by Dr Edward Brongersma on "Love and
Pedagogy" [PAN21:30-36]
-
Gustav Wyneken (1875-1964) and his renewed interest
in Classical "paedagogical eros" [Paidika5:58-61]
(NOTE: links to Paidika articles have been
removed by request of Paidika Board of Directors)
- 19th Century 'Uranians' (Writers and Artists)
- Several issues of Paidika give references to Tim d'Arch Smith's
comprehensive history of the 19th Century 'Uranians',
Love in Earnest (1970), including
Paidika2:53-54,
Paidika4:14,
Paidika5:25,
Paidika9:18,
Paidika10:55, and
Paidika12:73
(NOTE: links to Paidika articles have been
removed by request of Paidika Board of Directors)
-
Boys in the art and life of
Antonio Mancini (1852-1930) [Paidika7:31-47]
-
"Arthur Lyon Raile" - Edward Perry Warren (1860-1936), author, poet
[Paidika4:12-27]
-
Charles Filiger (1863-1928), artist [Paidika4:32-49]
- Writings of "Sagitta" - John Henry Mackay (1864-1933)
[Paidika7:48-58];
see also Paidika3:11-21
and the Union Index on the Rare Resources page
at this Web site
(search "Mackay, John Henry") for other
references in Paidika as well as Pan
(NOTE: links to Paidika articles have been
removed by request of Paidika Board of Directors)
-
Rev John Francis Bloxam's (1873-1928) "beneficial influence
on boys" ( [IJGL2:40-42]
-
Jacques d'Adelswärd Fersen (1880-1923),
poet and novelist [Paidika10:30-58]
-
Ronald Firbank (1886-1926) wrote fiction dealing with
boys and boy-love [PAN11:23-26]
-
Ralph Chubb (1892-1960), poet, artist, publisher [IJGL1:5-17]
-
J.M. Barrie's boy-obsession (probably non-sexual) and
Peter Pan (1904) [PAN5:22-24]
-
Book Review: American boy-love poetry from 1924 [PAN1:28-29]
- Medicine/Psychology
-
Around 1900, give or take 20 years, "modern" views of
sexuality began to appear with the advent of psychiatry
and the notion of homosexuality as a distinct sexual orientation
[PAN10:35-37]
- Anti-sexual counter-reformation
[Paidika12:81]:
The Victorian-era anti-masturbation
campaigns of Dr John Kellogg and others set the stage
for the roller-coaster of attitudes regarding
sexuality that was to come; see also
Dr John Money's discussion of this topic,
including his book, The Destroying Angel (1985)
[Paidika7:2-13]
(NOTE: links to Paidika articles have been
removed by request of Paidika Board of Directors)
- Sigmund Freud's theories about children's sexuality were
enormously influential as society was re-defining childhood itself,
and inventing "adolescence";
see the Union Index at
this Web site under "Rare Documents . . ."
for specific references (search "Freud, Sigmund")
- Dr Magnus Hirschfeld published his trend-setting ideas on
homosexuality in books and an influential journal of which he was the
editor;
see the Union Index at
this Web site under "Rare Documents . . ."
for specific references (search "Hirschfeld, Dr Magnus")
- Paedagogical Eros
- Educator
Gustav
Wyneken (1875-1964) coined the term
"pädagogisher Eros"
to describe the
erotic attraction, even love, between a teacher
and a pupil, virtually always in the same-sex setting
that was typical for boarding schools of the time.
The ideal relationship was seen as
sensual, stopping short of sexual interaction.
Other educators of the 18th and 19th Centuries, notably
Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his signature work
Émile, ou de l'education [Emile, or On
Education](1762), had advocated
the denial and repression of sexuality in the
teacher-student relationship.
Wyneken modeled his views on
classical Greek and other methods and implemented
this approach in his influential
Schulgemeinde (school community) at Wickersdorf in Germany.
A movement of School Communities followed in Germany
and elsewhere.
[Paidika2:4-5 and Paidika5:58-61 (Book Review)]
- Educator
René Schérer's relatively recent book
Émile perverti (1974)
advocates that in 20th Century education, Rousseau's
detachment and distance is counterproductive, and that
close releationships between teacher and student
produce the best pedagogical results.
[Paidika2:2-12]
- Psychologist Charlotte Buhler, Ph.D. (1893-1974)
viewed what she called
"Schwarmen" (infatuations) between
girls and older females as an important developmental
process and path to self-realization.[Paidika8:77]
- The theories and practices of these and other
figures of the late 19th-early 20th Centuries were
part of a widespread youth movement throughout Europe
and America that emphasized same-sex interaction (see next
section).
(NOTE: links to Paidika articles have been
removed by request of Paidika Board of Directors)
- Scouting / YMCA / Youth movements / Nudism
-
In the early 20th Century, same-sex bonding (female as
well as a male) found an organized home in Scouting,
the Young Men's Christian Association, and the pre-Nazi
German Youth movement [Paidika9, see p.68], also
[Paidika12, see pp.73,75]
(NOTE: links to Paidika articles have been
removed by request of Paidika Board of Directors)
-
Interview: Hajo Ortil, leader of a durable nudist youth
movement in the 1930s-1940s [PAN9:18-26]
-
The German Wandervogel girls [Paidika8:76-82]
(NOTE: links to Paidika articles have been
removed by request of Paidika Board of Directors)
- Gay Liberation
- 19th and 20th Century Outside Europe and America
-
Albania (1908) - boy-love traditional;
facilitates transmission of culture [IJGL1:39-47]
-
Boy-Love (bacabozlik) a common as method of
transmitting culture to new generations in
Central Asia (e.g., Afghanistan) until 20th Century;
since the 1920s, the practice has been punishable
[Paidika6:12-31]
(NOTE: links to Paidika articles have been
removed by request of Paidika Board of Directors)
- 20th Century 'Uranians'
-
Willem de Mérode (1887-1939), poet, Christian [Paidika1:42-56]
-
Lewis Thompson (1909-1949), author, poet, mystic [Paidika1:12-26]
-
Jan Hanlo (1912-1969), poet [Paidika11:34-62]
-
François Augiéras (1925-1971), author [Paidika9:57-64]
-
Book Review: Benjamin Britten: A Biography (1992),
by Humphrey Carpenter [Paidika11:69-76]
-
Dr Edward Brongersma (1911-1998), reviews of his book
Loving Boys (Volume 1, 1986; Volume 2, 1990)
[Paidika7:62-70]; see also
other references to Brongersma under "Scholarship" in
this list, and his regular column ("Boycaught") in most
issues of PAN
-
"Victor Servatius" - Dr Frits Bernard (1920-2006) and
his Enclave Press in the 1960s, 70s and 80s [!Paidika6:50-54]
-
Graham Ovenden (born 1943), poet and photographer [Paidika10:18-29]
-
Sidney Smith (born 1950), artist, and his Dragonfly Press in
the 1970s and 80s [Paidika3:49-60]
(NOTE: links to Paidika articles have been
removed by request of Paidika Board of Directors)
- PIE and NAMBLA - the 1970s
- Women's Liberation (Feminism) and Female Paedophilia
- many issues of PAN make reference to the influence of
feminists and feminism in raising awareness about
child abuse and child sex issues;
see the Union Index at
this Web site under "Rare Documents . . ."
for specific references (search "feminists/feminism")
-
Kate Millett's ideas (1993) on the sexual revolution
and the liberation of children [Paidika8:83-85]
-
Feminism, Paedophilia and Children's Rights (1992), article
by Pat Califia [Paidika8:53-60]
-
Sexual contacts between women and children, infrequent but not
unknown (situation as of 1993) [Paidika11:17-25]
(NOTE: links to Paidika articles have been
removed by request of Paidika Board of Directors)
- Paedophile Organizations Centered in Holland
- Kiddie Porn and Child Sex Hysteria - the 1980s
-
Dr Judianne Densen-Gerber: congressional testimony and
other activities [PAN3:27-30];
see also PAN4:26-30
and many subsequent PAN articles and notes regarding this
anti-child-sex spokesperson and the Congressional hearings of the time
-
Prosecution of CRIES, a Belgian paedophile support group
[Paidika7:17-31]
-
Hysteria over child pornography and paedophilia (late 1980s)
[Paidika2:13-34]
-
Book Review: Zedenangst: Het verhaal van Oude Pekela
(1989), by Benjamin Rossen, regarding the "moral panic"
prosecutions in the 1980s in Oude Pekela, Netherlands
[Paidika6:61-62]
(NOTE: links to Paidika articles have been
removed by request of Paidika Board of Directors)
- Day-Care Scandals and Satanic Abuse Hoaxes - the 1980s
-
The CORAL prosecution in France (1982-83) [PAN15:19-23]
-
Satanic ritual abuse phenomenon of the 1980s, overview by Gode Davis
[Paidika11:2-11]
-
Witness interview techniques; manipulation of child witnesses
[Paidika9:2-12]
(NOTE: links to Paidika articles have been
removed by request of Paidika Board of Directors)
- Scholarship and Pseudo-Scholarship - the 1980s and 1990s
- Legislation and More Legislation - The Child Abuse Industry
-
Book Reviews: By Silence Betrayed (1988), by John
Crewdson, and The Battle and the Backlash
(1988), by David Hechler - discussions of the popular
attitudes regarding child sexual abuse in the late 1980s
[Paidika4:55-63]
-
Book Review: First Do No Harm: The Sexual Abuse Industry
(1993), by Felicity Goodyear-Smith [Paidika12:79-83]
-
Recent (as of 1995) legislation in the Netherlands
[Paidika12:64-71]
(NOTE: links to Paidika articles have been
removed by request of Paidika Board of Directors)
- The debate continues;
see the Union Index at
this Web site under "Rare Documents . . ."
for specific references (search "Child-Abuse-Industry")
Discussion
In an overview like this, the picture that emerges is one of
huge differences between, for example,
the ancient world and the 1940s, or between Victorian times
and the present.
This view of the situation raises pointed questions about some
current politically-motivated attitudes and actions.
That doesn't mean anything will change.
It doesn't even mean that anything should change.
Sometimes even a strong case can blithely be ignored when
the political motivation (and resulting payoff) is strong enough.
And sometimes precipitous change can cause more problems
than it solves.
Change is not the goal here.
Knowledge is the goal.
The State of research, U.S.A. (and other Western countries).
If I had to summarize the history of research on intergen issues
(as noted in the short Glossary at the top of this page,
"intergen" is our shorthand term for
intergenerational interaction of all types) it would read thus:
Historical records of man/boy interaction
go back as far as history itself, there was a surge
in psychological/sociological research in the 1970s, and at the
beginning of the 1980s the tide shifted decidedly toward the
pseudo-research of the Child-Abuse-Industry (CAI).
(See my paper
[Jones, 1991]
for a critique of CAI research methods.)
The corresponding one-sentence description of the fiction and nonfiction
literature is more simple: it always was, and still is, a topic for
novels and (auto-)biographies, stories and poetry.
I could be wrong, but my impression is that the amount of fiction
dealing with man/boy relationships -- and there has never been
a shortage of literature on this subject -- is far greater than
any literature on man/girl, woman/boy or woman/girl relationships.
(See
Bradley, n.d.[1965]
for a discussion of woman/girl love
relationships in modern literature.)
I'm not sure what this means, if true, but if nothing else it
indicates that relationships between men and boys (adults and
pre-adults) do exist.
Who writes about boys and men?
Many believe that scholars who deal with relationships
between men and boys do so because they have biases about
the behavior.
This is not unlikely.
In fact, I'll go one step further and say it's probably true,
since I believe any and all scholars, and other writers as well,
are motivated by feelings and issues similar to those they
report and write about.
This is not so unusual, unless you happen to disagree with
the writer's positions, then his or her motivations become
a target for criticism, quite apart from the points put forward
in the writing.
A common criticism of scholars dealing with intergen issues is
that their choice of what to include in their program of study
is exclusionary. If true, this is a problem, whether the
writer is for or against intergenerational interaction.
Most intergen researchers, moreover, deal with secondary sources
by necessity.
So it has been for me, having begun my graduate studies in
the mid-1970s about the time that the
Child-Abuse-Industry (CAI) was clamping down on
the search for truth.
Primary research -- controlled studies with human subjects,
for example -- is difficult under any circumstances, and
when children and controversial issues are involved,
the available subject pool is essentialy zero.
These drawbacks do not necessarily make for useless research.
When a researcher reports sources that are available to
other researchers in libraries or elsewhere, even if the
sources are hand-picked, they still represent chunks of
knowledge that, unless fabricated, are descriptive of
human experience. Even when a researcher's conclusions
are questionable, the research may bring to light puzzle
pieces that can be put together by others in other writings.
Conclusions
This leads, finally, to a concluding summary.
What I've done here is to survey a lot of research, mostly scholars
using secondary sources, some good, some pretty bad,
from the beginning of written records until now.
My goal was to use the pieces presented to us in
the whole range of scholarly literature to
present comparisons of different places
and historical times; to show how one culture's
approval of intergen can give way to another culture's
disapproval, then swing back again; and ultimately to
support in overview the following two conclusions:
- There is a mountain of credible research presented
by scholars who view intergen as important and
positive
- There is virtually no credible refutation of the
sources presented by those
scholars, aside from emotional and hysterical
attacks by CAI advocates
The premises and positions of each
book or paper I've considered are
not as important as the sources cited therein.
These sources are listed in the
Formal Bibliography
linked on the main "Rare Resources"
page of this Web site.
It is those sources that form the basis of my
conclusions here.