Are All Men Pedophiles?

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Are All Men Pedophiles?
Are All Men Pedophiles Correct Poster.jpg
Directed by Jan-Willem Breure
Written byJan-Willem Breure
Narrated byJan-Willem Breure
Production
company
JW Productions
Distributed bySideways Film
Release date
  • March 2, 2012 (2012-03-02)(New York City)
Running time
70 minutes
CountryNetherlands
LanguageEnglish

Are All Men Pedophiles? is a 2012 documentary film by Rwandan-Dutch media producer Jan-Willem Breure. Presented by 14-year-old model Savannah van Zweeden and covering the topics of pedophilia and hebephilia, the entire film was financed privately, mainly by the 23-year-old Breure (with the rest of the funding coming from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague). [1] Are All Men Pedophiles? had its world premiere at the Queens World Film Festival in New York City on March 2, 2012 [2] and has been screened at a number of film festivals. [1] [3]

Contents

Synopsis

The documentary explores what it regards as a "pedophilia hysteria" and argues there is a "witch-hunt" against men. Furthermore, it argues that in an effort to protect children, society has begun to isolate men. The film suggests that all men are viewed as potential pedophiles and examines the political and social consequences of that assumption. [4] [5]

The film's tagline is "Eighteen Is Just A Number", expressing its principal claim that all men are hebephiles, which it defines as attraction to teenagers. The film argues that society needs to make a distinction between this and true pedophilia—a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. [1]

The documentary looks at pedophilia from a cultural and professional perspective, interviewing several experts, including neuroscientists, psychologists, sexologists and model-scouts. [6] Contributors included neurobiologist Dick Swaab, forensic psychologist Corine de Ruiter  [ nl ], international model-booker Jinnah Lou Domino, and former PNVD spokesperson Marthijn Uittenbogaard  [ nl ].

Critical reception

The film was endorsed by Woet Gianotten, co-founder and board member of the ISSC (International Society for Sexuality and Cancer). [7] In response to the film's suggestion that the Lolita fashion subculture is evidence that the sexualization of teenagers and hebephilia is culturally accepted, members of the Lolita fashion community started a Change.org petition that argues that the film leads the public to believe that their community was about sex when in fact it was about fashion and self-expression. [1]

Contradicting the film's central tenet that all men are hebephiles, Michael C. Seto explained that hebephiles are attracted to pubescent children who are still physically immature and that most men are not hebephiles. Rather, men show a preference for young adults and, to a smaller degree, older teens. Similarly, sociologist Sarah Goode stated that, while it is "pretty normal" for men to be attracted to teenagers, not all men are attracted to this age group. Seto also stated that sex with adults can be harmful for older teenagers because on average, "they are less cognitively, emotionally and socially developed" compared to adults, making them "at risk of exploitation or manipulation". [1]

One of the posters for the film shows a 14-year-old model who looks older with the tagline "Do you find me attractive?". [6] Breure stated that he chose a young model to "confront people with the issue", adding that "she is attractive" for an average man. [1] BuzzFeed reported a claim that the 14-year-old model was deceived because she was told that the photograph was to be used in relation to Japanese fashion rather than to promote a film about pedophilia. [1] Breure, however, has rejected this accusation, saying that the 14-year old model was shown the title of the film, which was written on the release form for the photographs. [1]

Breure was criticized in the BuzzFeed article, for not having a "clear political agenda." The author stated that the film and its director seem circumspect regarding whether Western countries' age of consent limits should be changed. [1] The syndicated feminist blog Jezebel commented, "He just thinks that teenage girls are hot, and he doesn't want you to think that's gross, okay?" [1] [6]

Brande Victorian of Clutch magazine argued that, in claiming that it is unfair to expect men to refrain from acting on their attraction to teenagers, the filmmaker promotes the stereotype that men cannot control their sexual desires. [8]

The film was the winner of the Sexology Media Prize of 2012, issued by the Dutch Sexology Association (NVVS). [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

Paraphilia is the experience of recurring or intense sexual arousal to atypical objects, situations, fantasies, behaviors, or individuals. It has also been defined as a sexual interest in anything other than conventional sexual intercourse with a consenting human partner.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ephebophilia</span> Sexual preference for adolescents

Ephebophilia is the primary sexual interest in mid-to-late adolescents, generally ages 15 to 19. The term was originally used in the late 19th to mid-20th century. It is one of a number of sexual preferences across age groups subsumed under the technical term chronophilia.Ephebophilia strictly denotes the preference for mid-to-late adolescent sexual partners, not the mere presence of some level of sexual attraction. It is not a psychiatric diagnosis.

Hebephilia is the strong, persistent sexual interest by adults in pubescent children who are in early adolescence, typically ages 11–14 and showing Tanner stages 2 to 3 of physical development. It differs from pedophilia, and from ephebophilia. While individuals with a sexual preference for adults may have some sexual interest in pubescent-aged individuals, researchers and clinical diagnoses have proposed that hebephilia is characterized by a sexual preference for pubescent rather than adult partners.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kurt Freund</span> Czech-Canadian physician and sexologist

Kurt Freund was a Czech-Canadian physician and sexologist best known for developing the penile plethysmograph, research studies in pedophilia, and for the "courtship disorder" hypothesis as a taxonomy of certain paraphilias. After unsuccessful attempts to change men's sexual orientation, he advocated against conversion therapy and in favor of the decriminalization of homosexuality.

Penile plethysmography (PPG) or phallometry is measurement of blood flow to the penis, typically used as a proxy for measurement of sexual arousal. The most commonly reported methods of conducting penile plethysmography involve the measurement of the circumference of the penis with a mercury-in-rubber or electromechanical strain gauge, or the volume of the penis with an airtight cylinder and inflatable cuff at the base of the penis. Corpora cavernosa nerve penile plethysmographs measure changes in response to inter-operative electric stimulation during surgery. The volumetric procedure was invented by Kurt Freund and is considered to be particularly sensitive at low arousal levels. The easier to use circumferential measures are more widely used, however, and more common in studies using erotic film stimuli. A corresponding device in women is the vaginal photoplethysmograph.

The term chronophilia was used by psychologist John Money to describe varying forms of sexual preference and/or sexual fixation limited to individuals of particular age ranges. Some such fixations, specifically those towards prepubescents and those towards the elderly, constitute types of paraphilia. The term has not been widely adopted by sexologists, who instead use terms that refer to the specific age range in question. An arguable historical precursor was Richard von Krafft-Ebing's concept of "age fetishism". Importantly, chronophilia are technically not determined by age itself, but by human sexual maturity stages, such as body type, secondary sexual characteristics and other visible features, particularly as measured by the stages of the Tanner scale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Babysitting</span> Temporary childcare

Babysitting is temporarily caring for a child. Babysitting can be a paid job for all ages; however, it is best known as a temporary activity for early teenagers who are not yet eligible for employment in the general economy. It provides autonomy from parental control and dispensable income, as well as an introduction to the techniques of childcare. It emerged as a social role for teenagers in the 1920s, and became especially important in suburban America in the 1950s and 1960s, when small children were abundant. It stimulated an outpouring of folk culture in the form of urban legends, pulp novels, and horror films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre</span> Hospital in Ontario, Canada

The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, also known as "ROMHC" or "The Royal" is a 284-bed, 400,000 square-foot psychiatric hospital located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. It is a major branch of the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group (ROHCG), which also encompasses the Brockville Mental Health Centre, the University of Ottawa Institute of Mental Health Research and the Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Cameron</span> American psychologist and extremist (born 1939)

Paul Drummond Cameron is an American psychologist. While employed at various institutions, including the University of Nebraska, he conducted research on passive smoking, but he is best known today for his claims about homosexuality. After a successful 1982 campaign against a gay rights proposal in Lincoln, Nebraska, he established the Institute for the Scientific Investigation of Sexuality (ISIS), now known as the Family Research Institute (FRI). As FRI's chairman, Cameron has written contentious papers asserting unproven associations between homosexuality and the perpetration of child sexual abuse and reduced life expectancy. These have been heavily criticized and frequently discredited by others in the field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ray Blanchard</span> American-Canadian sexologist

Ray Milton Blanchard is an American-Canadian sexologist, best known for his research studies on pedophilia, sexual orientation and gender identity. He found that men with more older brothers are more likely to be gay than men with fewer older brothers, a phenomenon he attributes to the reaction of the mother's immune system to male fetuses. Blanchard has also published research studies on phallometry and several paraphilias, including autoerotic asphyxia.

Pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty at age 10 or 11, and boys at age 11 or 12, psychiatric diagnostic criteria for pedophilia extend the cut-off point for prepubescence to age 13.

"Lolita" is an English-language term defining a young girl as "precociously seductive." It originates from Vladimir Nabokov's 1955 novel Lolita, which portrays the narrator Humbert's sexual obsession with and victimization of a 12-year-old girl whom he privately calls "Lolita", the Spanish nickname for Dolores. Unlike Nabokov, however, contemporary writers typically use the term "Lolita" to portray a young girl who attracts adult desire as complicit rather than victimized.

Feminist sexology is an offshoot of traditional studies of sexology that focuses on the intersectionality of sex and gender in relation to the sexual lives of women. Sexology has a basis in psychoanalysis, specifically Freudian theory, which played a big role in early sexology. This reactionary field of feminist sexology seeks to be inclusive of experiences of sexuality and break down the problematic ideas that have been expressed by sexology in the past. Feminist sexology shares many principles with the overarching field of sexology; in particular, it does not try to prescribe a certain path or "normality" for women's sexuality, but only observe and note the different and varied ways in which women express their sexuality. It is a young field, but one that is growing rapidly.

The North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) is a pedophilia and pederasty advocacy organization in the United States. It works to abolish age-of-consent laws criminalizing adult sexual involvement with minors and campaigns for the release of men who have been jailed for sexual contacts with minors that did not involve what it considers coercion.

The debate on the causes of clerical child abuse is a major aspect of the academic literature surrounding Catholic sex abuse cases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Cantor</span> American-Canadian clinical psychologist and sexologist

James M. Cantor is an American-Canadian clinical psychologist and sexologist specializing in hypersexuality and paraphilias.

The Prevention Project Dunkelfeld (PPD) is an effort founded in Germany to provide clinical and support services to individuals who are sexually attracted to children and want help controlling their sexual urges, but are otherwise unknown to the legal authorities. The term "Dunkelfeld" is German for Dark figure of crime. It was named that way because its goal is to reduce the amount of unknown cases of Child sexual abuse. The project began in Berlin in June 2005 with a large media campaign to contact pedophiles and hebephiles who wanted help from clinicians to manage their paraphilia. The campaign pledged medically confidential treatment free-of-charge. It was initially funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, and has been financially supported by the German government since 2008. The project's slogan is "You are not guilty because of your sexual desire, but you are responsible for your sexual behavior. There is help! Don't become an offender!"

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael C. Seto</span> Canadian forensic psychologist

Michael Chikong Seto is a Canadian forensic psychologist, sexologist, and author. He is director of Forensic Rehabilitation Research at the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, where his research focuses on pedophilia, sexual offenses committed against children, child pornography, risk assessment, offenders with mental disorders, psychopathy, and program evaluation.

Jailbait images are sexualized images of minors who are perceived to meet the definition of jailbait. Jailbait images can be differentiated from child pornography as jailbait images do not usually contain nudity. Jailbait depicts tween or young teen girls in skimpy clothing such as bikinis, short skirts, or underwear.

<i>I, Pedophile</i> 2016 Canadian documentary film

I, Pedophile is a Canadian documentary film about men who are sexually attracted to children, but do not commit sexual offenses. It was first broadcast in 2016 and was nominated for the Donald Brittain Award for best social/political documentary program at the 5th Canadian Screen Awards.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 North, Anna. "Pedophilia Documentarian: "Eighteen Is Just A Number"". BuzzFeed . Archived from the original on June 25, 2012. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
  2. Pafundi, Jason (May 1, 2012). "Festival Presents Films From Around The World". Queens Tribune . Archived from the original on April 27, 2012. Retrieved July 1, 2012.
  3. "Special Screening: Are All Men Pedophiles? - Transatlantyk Festival Poznan". Transatlantyk.org. Archived from the original on 2013-10-17. Retrieved 2013-10-10.
  4. "Are All Men Pedophiles? iTunes 2015". iTunes.com. Retrieved 2015-04-11.
  5. Jenkins, G. Cledwyn (2020-08-01). Banished: A Comprehensive Look into the Mind and Soul of the Sex Offender with Sex Offender Case Studies and the Recidivism Challenge. BrownWalker Press. p. 299. ISBN   978-1-59942-602-0.
  6. 1 2 3 Baker, Katie J.M. (May 11, 2012). "Documentarian Tries but Does Not Quite Succeed at Justifying Pedophilia". Jezebel . Archived from the original on June 15, 2012. Retrieved July 3, 2012.
  7. 1 2 "Are all men pedophiles? Wint NVVS Seksuologie Mediaprijs 2012 | NVVS" (in Dutch). Nvvs.info. 2012-12-06. Archived from the original on 2013-10-14. Retrieved 2013-10-10.
  8. Victorian, Brande. "All Men Aren't Pedophiles, But This Film Thinks They Might Be". Clutch . Archived from the original on April 26, 2015. Retrieved April 25, 2015.