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richie ryan
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Getting started |
Location: US, Minnesota
Registered: February 2002
Messages: 4
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Hey All,
In the previous thread, (by the way, hang in there Tim) Ron mentioned a book scheduled to be released in May. As I live in Minnesota, I've been close to all the controversy. I think it's an important issue, not only concerning freedom of speech, but the subject matter of the book as well. For that reason, and because Ron mentioned it, I've pasted the first many articles below, which appeared in the Star Tribune on Apr. 3, 2002.
Now I make no judgements, at least not until after I've read the book, but I would like to put two things in perspective. First, the author of the book mentions that she had sex with an adult when she was a minor. I have found out that she was 17 and the adult was 26. Secondly, it's an election year here in Minnesota - nuff said.
Book on children and sex finds harsh critics
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/2202820.html
Terry Collins
Star Tribune
A book about the sexuality of children and teens, published by the University of Minnesota Press, has attracted national criticism even before its planned release in May.
Press officials said they have received unprecedented opposition to Judith Levine's book, "Harmful to Minors: The Perils of Protecting Children From Sex" -- 100 calls, e-mails and letters from across the country so far.
Levine's book argues that protecting children and teens from knowing more about sex does more harm than good -- and that not all sexual interaction between adults and those youths is bad.
Kathryn Grimes, a University Press spokeswoman, said Tuesday that while some controversy was anticipated, reaction wasn't expected to come before publication.
The book's promotional message said Levine "challenges widespread anxieties" such as pedophilia, stranger kidnapping, Internet pornography and "sacred cows" such as abstinence-based sex education and laws on statutory rape. The university literature said the book offers "fresh alternatives to fear and silence."
Levine said Tuesday that she supports the age-of-consent law in the Netherlands as a "good model" -- it permits sex between an adult and a person between 12 and 16 if the younger person consents. Prosecutions for coercive sex may be sought by the young person or the youth's parents.
"Can little children under the age of 12 have sexual experiences with adults that are positive? I would doubt it," Levine said. "The Dutch law does two things: The law does balance that young people are sexual and they behave sexually under their own will."
"At the same time, they are weaker than adults and therefore they can be vulnerable to adult exploitation. So the law protects them from that exploitation."
Grimes said most of the criticism of the book grew from a Newhouse News Service article last week that quoted Levine as saying that a sexual relationship between a priest and a youth "conceivably, absolutely" could be positive.
Levine said that her comments had been taken out of context and that she disapproves of any sexual relationship between a youth and an authority figure, whether a parent, teacher or priest. However, she said teenagers deserve more respect for the choices they make in consensual affairs.
The Newhouse article has been debated on local and national talk radio shows and Web sites, leading to the pre-release criticism.
"The response to the book is unprecedented for us; however, it has been based on a misrepresentation of the book," Grimes said. "We hope that people will take the time to read the book and it becomes the start of a debate instead of an attack based on inaccurate information."
The manuscript was reviewed by five academic experts, instead of the usual two, she said, to make sure its argument was based on research, not opinion.
Levine, 49, a journalist for 25 years, said Tuesday that her book is about adults learning to give children realistic, practical advice about sex "that talks about the ways of how children can grow to be happy, healthy sexual beings while being safe in the process."
She writes in her introduction that if educators want to be credible about sexual responsibility, "they have to be forthright about sexual joy." She also writes that if parents want their kids to be happy, it's their duty to help them learn to love well.
"For our part, adults owe children not only protection and a schooling in safety, but also the entitlement to pleasure," she said.
Levine, who has written articles in Ms. magazine and other national publications and founded a feminist group called No More Nice Girls, said Tuesday from New York that she began working on the book in the mid-1990s. She acknowledged that with the recent sex abuse scandals involving clergy members and young people, this is a tough time to argue that American children can have positive sexual experiences.
Levine said Tuesday that she had sex with an adult when she was a minor. In the Newhouse story, she said that "on balance it was a perfectly good experience."
In the introduction to her book she writes that "'Harmful to Minors' launches from two negatives: Sex is not ipso facto harmful to minors; and America's drive to protect kids from sex is protecting them from nothing. Instead, often it is harming them."
Several media commentators and activists have accused Levine of condoning child abuse.
Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for America's Culture and Family Institute in Washington, D.C., is urging the University of Minnesota to fire the University Press officials who decided to publish the book.
The institute's mission is to "bring biblical principles into all levels of public policy," its Web site says.
"The action is so grievous and so irresponsible that I felt they relinquished their right to academic freedom," said Knight, who has described the book as "very evil."
The University Press is an independent auxiliary of the university, Grimes said. Its publication costs are paid mostly through sales revenue; funding from the university contributes less than 2 percent, or about $100,000, of its annual budget.
Levine said Tuesday that the book does not endorse pedophilia or any type of sexual abuse.
"I deplore rape, sexual abuse of children and any way that a person is forced to have sex against their will," Levine said. "I am a feminist, and I am glad that our legal system has laws against rape."
"For anybody to say I promote child abuse is absurd."
Levine said that while it's good that safeguards such as statutory rape laws are in place, more has to be done through honest and open communication.
"You can't watch your kids every minute," she said. "You need to arm them with the tools of how to be a good person and how to protect themselves, including giving them comprehensive sexual information."
"My main point: Ask them. Don't assume."
-- The Associated Press contributed to this report.
-- Terry Collins is at tcollins@startribune.com .
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