Post a response:
|
Interesting article online for free: Cleves, Rachel Hope (2020): The Problem of Modern Pederasty in Queer History. A Case Study of Norman Douglas https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/historical-reflections/46/1/hrrh460104.xml Abstract: „Intergenerational sex between children or youth and adults was historically common, but it is understudied within the historiography of sexuality. There are three reasons that historians of sexuality should pay greater attention to intergenerational sex. First, it was common; second, discourse around intergenerational sex has been a critical site for the production of power; and third, studying intergenerational sex illuminates how sexuality is historically constructed. However, studying intergenerational sex also raises thorny methodological problems around defi nitions of childhood and consent, the treatment of children’s agency, and how to contextualize a practice that was once considered ordinary but is now taboo. Using examples from my research on the writer and notorious pederast Norman Douglas, I address each of these methodological concerns and suggest productive approaches.“ Norman Douglas had a sexual preference for „minors“ (more for boys than for girs) of about 10 to 14 years and really lived that preference. It is interesting to see how things were different back than: „In his two-volume memoir Looking Back, published in 1933, Douglas wrote openly about paying families in Russia and Italy for sexual access to their children. His writings, combined with his arrests, made him synonymous with pederasty during his lifetime. Despite this notoriety, Douglas was not regarded as a monster by his friends or fans. Far from it, he was loved by many. In fact, his reputation for sexual license constituted a big part of his personal and authorial appeal. Douglas first gained fame with the publication of a stridently immoral book (South Wind) at a moment when the edifi ce of Victorian prudery was crumbling under the disillusioning impact of World War I. His willingness to fl out sexual conventions made him a fi gure of admiration at a time when pederasty was not yet distinguished as a monstrous sexuality distinct from all other sexual immoralities.“ The article has some rare ugly pedophobic words in it, but very often the article is impressive non-pedophobic. For example the text reports positive memories of adults who as boys had sex with Norman Douglas: „A decade after they first met, Wolton, who was then in his early twenties, wrote to Douglas reminiscing about their former times together: “Doug, I have wanted Italy and you as bad as anything last week. All the old times flash back in my memory.” Wolton refused to disavow his childhood sexual relationship with Douglas, writing: They were happy times too Doug were’nt [sic] they, I have no evil thoughts about them although I am different today than I was then. You were my tin god and even now you are. I do really love you as a great friend and even now I know that if I live to be a million never shall I harbour the same feeling that I have for you. . . . I am afraid I have expressed myself very badly but I want you to understand Doug that you are more to me than ever you were. The difference is now that I am old enough to realise it.30 As an adult, Wolton pursued sexual encounters with women. He was “different” than he had been as a boy, but he felt positively about his youthful sexual encounters with Douglas nonetheless.“ [@nonymouse] [Guardster] [Proxify] [Anonymisierungsdienst] |