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.