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Celebrating
erotic relationships between women and young girls is
the theme of a website called "Butterfly Kisses,"
which indicates the relatively unknown fact that pedophilia
exists in significant numbers among females.
While
the site's creators do not identify themselves, posted
articles show how some advocates are attempting to create
an academic rationale for what is commonly and legally
regarded as abuse and molestation.
"It's
very dangerous when you begin to see women organize in
the same way you have seen men organized to rape children,"
said noted researcher Judith Reisman, who referred to
the people behind the website as the "Women's Auxiliary
of NAMBLA," the North American Man-Boy Love Association.
While
the site's opening page features an apparently wholesome
photograph of a mother appreciating her child, "the
primary goal" of presenting the subsequent material
is clearly stated in the introduction as giving "women
and girls a tool for expressing their feelings and their
love about this controversial topic, and to get people
to open their minds to ideas about romantic and erotic
attraction between women and girls that our society in
the past has not been able to discuss openly and rationally."
WorldNetDaily
was alerted to the website by reader Sandra Hartle of
Spanaway, Wash., a grandmother who is part of a group
that has helped shut down about 1,000 pornographic sites
on the Microsoft Network's website communities.
She
has discovered private sites on MSN depicting elementary
school-age boys with adult men, but found "Butterfly
Kisses" a particular threat to families like her
own.
"Some
of the information on this site is so terrifying to someone
who has three granddaughters that I cannot express my
shock," said Hartle.
"How
someone could harm a child that is so tender and vulnerable
is beyond my wildest imaginations," she said, "but
when a woman can and does violate that child sexually
it is somehow more devastating than even when you hear
of these things being done by men."
The
"Butterfly Kisses" website indicates it is hosted
by an entity called "Ipce," which describes
itself as a "forum for people who are engaged in
scholarly discussion about the understanding and emancipation
of mutual relationships between children or adolescents
and adults."
The
Ipce description says, "In this context, these relationships
are intended to be viewed from an unbiased, non-judgmental
perspective and in relation to the human rights of both
the young and adult partners."
Global
Scope
The
Butterfly Kisses and Ipce sites have Web addresses that
indicate their origin in the Netherlands. A story in the
Autumn 1987 issue of the Dutch-based Paidika: Journal
of Paedophilia recalls "The Dutch Paedophile Emancipation
Movement" which led to the world's most liberal laws
on pedophilia.
Dutch
law permits sex between an adult and a person as young
as 12 if the younger person consents.
Can
legal action be taken against a site like "Butterfly
Kisses," which promotes an act barred by U.S. state
laws?
A
private agency called Web Police, which investigates complaints
of abuse on the Internet, notes that U.S. laws do not
apply to the global Internet.
"We
would have an officer in the Netherlands address it according
to the country's laws, morals and code of ethics,"
said Peter Hampton, the founder of Web Police and several
related agencies. "We can't tell Holland what should
or should not be on the Internet."
But
not much would likely be done in the Netherlands either,
Hampton told WorldNetDaily.
"Their
problem is the same that the United States has,"
he said. "No. 1, there has to be a law enacted that
addresses the Internet directly."
Then,
said Hampton, you would need to find a police investigator,
prosecutor, judge and jury who all have the experience
to address an Internet-related case.
"The
majority of the time you're not going to find any of those,
and that's where you run into your stone wall," he
said. "So then we have to go directly to the suspect
and see if we can resolve it without the necessity of
going through all that expense and trouble."
Hampton
said he works regularly with the FBI, but "they've
got their hands full" with thousands of complaints
every day.
"We
get 1,500 a day, so I can imagine what the FBI gets,"
he said. "They simply can't address all these issues
and try to prosecute them. They don't have the manpower
and they don't have the teeth in the laws. The president
himself has said hands off the Internet, it's an international
community."
Underestimated
problem
How
prevalent is pedophilia among women?
Hampton
says that he gets an average of more than 200 reports
related to female pedophilia on the Internet each day,
including websites, message boards and other forums.
It's
growing, he says of the presence of female pedophilia
on the Web, though sites related to male pedophilia are
increasing at about 10 times the rate.
"But
I was surprised that this was even an issue," he
said of female pedophilia. "It's been since about
two years ago that we've found it to be quite prevalent."
Linda
Halliday-Sumner, a sexual abuse consultant in Courtenay,
B.C., Canada, told WND that when she first began in 1980,
about 1.5 percent of her cases were women who abuse minors.
Within six years that increased to 11 to 13 percent. In
the last 10 years, she said, at least 33 percent of her
325 cases a year have been women.
"It
is very underreported," she said of the incidences
of abuse by females. "When it is reported it's often
dismissed or laughed at as not being serious. Motherhood
and apple pie, you know - we don't do that sort of thing."
Much
of the opposition has been from women's groups.
"I
have been strongly attacked and criticized because I've
spoken out about female offenders," she said.
The
Journal of Paedophilia devoted an entire issue to the
subject of women in 1992. In the introductory article,
which is posted on "Butterfly Kisses," Marjan
Sax and Sjuul Deckwitz write that while little is known
about it, "As we dug more deeply into our subject
we discovered that erotic and sexual contacts between
women and children under the age of consent do indeed
occur. In speaking with female friends, once the shock
of embarking on a discussion of the concept of paedophilia
wore off, countless stories came out."
Studies
in the 1980s by researchers David Finkelhor and Diana
Russell estimated that in the United States about 14 percent
of abuse cases involving boys were perpetrated by females.
About 6 percent of the cases were of women who abuse girls.
While
these studies give some clues, the true number of women
who have sexual contact with children is probably severely
underestimated, according to German psychologist Marina
Knopf. In an article on "Butterfly Kisses" titled
"Sexual Contacts Between Women and Children: Reflections
on an Unrealizable Research Project," Knopf said
that this could be because contacts by women are more
of a taboo than those by men.
She
writes that it "is less spoken of, more hidden, and
the women do not have any groups they attend or have formed
themselves as do men. ... The strength of this taboo might
help explain the enormous difficulty we had in finding
women to interview."
Well-known
pedophile advocate Pat Califia, who has spoken at mainstream
institutions such as Penn State University, writes in
an article posted on the "Butterfly Kisses"
site that, "It is possible that sexual activity occurs
more often between mothers and children or other women
than between men and children. Women have more access
to kids, and there are fewer taboos surrounding women's
handling young people's bodies."
Over
the past ten years, book titles have included "Female
Sexual Abuse of Children," published in 1993 by Guilford
Press, "When She was Bad: Violent Women and the Myth
of Innocence," 1997 by Penguin Putnam, Inc. and "The
Last Secret: Daughters Sexually Abused by Mothers,"
by Safer Society Press.
"The
incidence of mother-daughter sexual abuse is unknown because
it is a grossly underreported crime," according to
a group called Making Daughters Safe Again, which calls
itself the "only organization in the world specializing
in mother-daughter sexual abuse."
Among
the membership, comprised of women who were abused by
their mothers, less than 1 percent report that any intervention
occurred. An article on the MDSA website cites reasons
for that, such as "the extreme rarity of the offender
seeking treatment, the victim reporting the abuse, or
the authorities discovering the crime." Other reasons
include the fact that "therapists, social workers,
doctors, teachers, etc., know very little about this form
of abuse and/or do not consider it a possibility."
Also, "perpetrators overwhelmingly appear like 'normal'
caring mothers."
One
MDSA member says about abuse by mothers: "I think
that there is such a stigma to it. People don't want to
hear about it and don't want to know about it. I think
it must be really hard for people to hear that someone
who is supposed to be so supportive of us can betray us
so badly."
A
recent article by MDSA, which cites research on the subject,
says that in the past 20 years, "the incidence of
child sexual abuse jumped from just one in a million to
one in four or five children," according to a study
by researcher Anne Stirling Hastings in 2000.
"In
this time," the article says, "the conception
of female children as victims of inappropriate male sexual
behavior has dominated the research, and thus our understanding
of child sexual abuse. However, recent research consistently
reveals that females account for about one in four offenders,"
according to Patricia Pearson's 1997 study.
In
their introduction to the Journal of Paedophilia issue
about women, Sax and Deckwitz go on to say, "When
we embarked on this study we were also surprised that
so little consideration had been given to the positive,
fruitful side of relationships between adult women and
minors. In conversations with female friends, we heard
so many happy stories, related with genuine pleasure,
that our feeling was strengthened that presenting a positive
view of relationships between women and young people was
indeed justified."
Big
Sisters
The
"Butterfly Kisses" site includes links to branches
of the Big Sisters organization and Girl Scout websites,
suggesting that these groups present good opportunities
for women who desire sexual relationships with girls.
Resources
on the pro-pedophile site include articles under the heading
of "Girl Scouts and Mentoring" with titles such
as "Women Mentoring Girls," "Big Sisters,"
and "Lesbians are to Scouting as Sunshine is to Summer."
In
the site's reader forum, a participant identified as "Jean"
posted a message Sept. 16, 2001, that said "this
is the neatest forum. I have always been attracted to
little girls (8-10 yr olds)."
"Jean"
said she is a volunteer swimming instructor and asked
members of the forum for their advice on "making
little girlfriends."
The
following day, "Poppy" wrote back and said,
"You already have a convenient access to little girls
as a swimming coach. Try showing them that you care about
them more than your job asks you, i.e., help them with
their daily problems, get to know them and become close
with the girls who admire you."
Like
"Poppy," many of the voices on the "Butterfly
Kisses" site insist that they engage only in consensual
relationships with children. "Poppy" suggested
to the swimming instructor that she could offer to give
a little course in kissing to a girl who seems to be flirting
with her.
"But
whatever you do," she advised, "don't force
them to do anything they don't like. Good luck!"
Sax
and Deckwitz try to address the obvious argument that
"because of the difference in ages, a relationship
between a minor and an adult is necessarily characterized
by too great a power imbalance. The basis of this objection
is that young people cannot always foresee the consequences
of their actions, and that creates an opportunity for
adults to use, or abuse, them. The wishes of the child
are subordinated to those of the adult."
The
authors object to that concern, however, arguing that
"there is a power differential in every relationship.
With children, great power differences play a role in
their relationships with their parents, teachers, and
even sometimes with their peers. We are dissatisfied with
condemnations based on power imbalances."
Asserting
rights
Like
male pedophile advocates, many female promoters believe
that children are being oppressed by adults who have taken
away their right to fully express their sexuality in any
way they see fit.
"Butterfly
Kisses" includes a section called "Rights Advocacy"
with titles such as "Feminism, Pedophilia and Children's
Rights," by Pat Califia, "A Child's Sexual Bill
of Rights," "The North American Woman-Girl Love
Association" and "Sexual Revolution and the
Liberation of Children," by well-known feminist Kate
Millett.
Unlike
the male homosexual movement, says researcher Reisman,
author of "Kinsey: Crimes & Consequences,"
"the feminist movement - and that includes the lesbian
movement - has been vocal about 'It's not right to have
sex with kids.'"
Nevertheless,
Millett, author of the 1970 feminist tome "Sexual
Politics," said in a 1980 interview reprinted in
the book "The Age of Taboo," that "certainly,
one of children's essential rights is to express themselves
sexually, probably primarily with each other but with
adults as well."
"Do
you think that a tender, loving erotic relationship can
exist between a boy and a man?" Millett was asked.
"Of
course," she answered, "or between a female
child and an older woman. Men and women have loved each
other for millennia, as have people of different races.
What I'm concerned about is the inequitous context within
which these relationships must exist. Of course, these
relationships can be non-exploitative and considering
the circumstances they are probably heroic and very wonderful;
but we have to admit that they can be exploitative as
well - like in the prostitution of youth."
"Sexual
Rights of Children," is an article published in 2000
by the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality
in San Francisco, which was founded by associates of famed
sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, a pedophile, according to
Reisman's carefully documented research. The article states
that there is "considerable evidence" that there
is no "inherent harm in sexual expression in childhood."
While
some believe they have "scientific evidence"
to support that assessment, the wounded lives of members
of Making Daughters Safe Again present a stark contradiction.
"Too
often, I prefer to be alone, because my heavy heart is
too full of past pain," said one member. "My
children get either a robotic mom, a sad mom or an empty
mom. There are times when I meet their emotional needs,
but there are times when I need to, want to and can't.
I have to heal before it is too late."
Another
lamented that "as a child my body belonged to someone
else and I had no boundaries. I never felt safe or whole.
It almost feels like you are someone else. Almost as if
you are the abuser. That you and her are one person."
Editor's
note: The July issue of WND's popular monthly print magazine,
Whistleblower, is a groundbreaking look at the issue of
homosexuality in America, particularly focusing on its
obsession with youth. Subscribe to Whistleblower at WND's
online store, ShopNetDaily.
©
2002 WorldNetDaily.com,
Inc.
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