Pederasty: An Integration of Cross-Cultural, Cross-Species, and Empirical Data controversy
Pederasty: An Integration of Cross-Cultural, Cross-Species, and Empirical Data (later titled Pederasty: An Integration of Empirical, Historical, Sociological, Cross-Cultural, Cross-Species, and Evolutionary Perspectives) is an academic article by Temple University professor Bruce Rind.[1][2][3] The paper generated a controversy in 2005 when Conservative website WorldNetDaily published a piece denouncing it, after which Haworth Press decided to pull its publication from the 2005 special issue of the Journal of Homosexuality.[1][4]
History
[edit]In 2005, Haworth Press announced a special issue of the Journal of Homosexuality dedicated to the topic of sexuality in Ancient Greece.[2] On September 19, Conservative website WorldNetDaily published an article stating that one of the articles the organization planned to publish, titled Pederasty: An Integration of Cross-Cultural, Cross-Species, and Empirical Data and authored by Bruce L. Rind, was promoting "the mainstreaming of 'adult-child' or 'intergenerational' sex".[1][5][4]
Later in the same month, Haworth Press pulled back the publication of Rind's article after receiving a number of e-mails from WorldNetDaily's readers. The organization's vice-president, Kathryn Rutz, said that the decision was made by five senior officials. She said that, prior to the decision, the organization had "fiercely" debated issues related to "freedom of speech, consequences of negative publicity, personal objections to the subject matter, and resistance to what might appear to be caving in to a particular group with its own right-wing agenda".[1]
The decision to cancel the publication overrode a previous decision of the editorial board of the Journal of Homosexuality. Board member Barbara Fister later resigned due to the publisher's decision. She said that her resignation from the editorial board of the Journal of Homosexuality was due to the overriding of the journal's decision by Haworth Press, and not due to her agreements or disagreements regarding the contents of Rind's paper. She said that "it seemed wrong to do voluntary work for a publisher that was willing to override an editorial board’s decision in response to criticism". She later related the cancellation of Rind's book to another controversy in which SAGE was accused of making editorial decisions over its published journals.[6]
In a public statement, Haworth Press stated that they intended to publish Rind's article in a future issue that would "adult–adolescent sexuality" in a "fully-framed context".[2] The company was later acquired by Taylor & Francis. In in 2009, Taylor & Francis spokesman said that the organization decided not to publish the article.[3] A later version of the article was later published by Left Coast Press in 2013 alongside some academic reviews and critiques of it by academics L. Eric Alcorn, Richard McAnulty and Lester Wright.[7][8]
Reception and commentaries
[edit]Writing on Windy City Times, academic Yasmin Nair described WorldNetDaily's denunciation of Rind's article as a "sensationalistic and willful misrepresentation of the book". She said that censoring academic research drives scientific articles underground, and that Haworth Press' decision to publish the volume without Rind's paper was "unsatisfactory because it implies that his work is outside the pale of 'normal' research".[5]
Amy Richlin, whose article was also set to be published in the special issue, said that an event such as the 2005 cancellation of the paper was unprecedented in her career. She said about Haworth Press that "If they’re going to allow themselves to be held hostage to the radical right, then they should get out of the publishing business".[1]
In an article published on Sexualities, Curtin University researcher Dean Durber stated that "rather than allowing the academic community to respond to and to debate [Rind's research], an attempt was made to prevent the material and his ideas from entering the public domain from the start."[6][2]
Biologist L. Eric Alcorn criticized the methodologies and findings of Rind's paper in a 2013 article.[8]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e Gleen, David (2005-10-07). "Spurred by Conservatives' Outcry, Haworth Press Cancels Book on Homosexuality in Antiquity". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023.
- ^ a b c d Durber, Dean (October 2006). "Haworth's End to the Pederasty Debate". Sexualities. 9 (4): 487–492. doi:10.1177/1363460706068046. ISSN 1363-4607.
- ^ a b Bunce, Lee (2009-06-25). "No outlet for work on men and boys". Times Higher Education (THE). Retrieved 2025-07-13.
- ^ a b Rau, Krishna (2005-12-21). "Rightwingers target book on Greek love". Xtra Magazine. Archived from the original on July 13, 2025.
- ^ a b Nair, Yasmin (2005-11-16). "Nair Views: Can We Talk?". Windy City Times. Archived from the original on July 13, 2025.
- ^ a b Fister, Barbara (2012). "The Ends of Organization & Environment". Inside Higher Ed.
- ^ Janssen, Diederik (December 2013). Review. H-Histsex, H-Net Reviews.
- ^ a b Alcorn, L. Eric (2013). "A Critique of the Academic Process and Application of Evolutionary Theory in Pederasty: An Integration of Empirical, Historical, Sociological, Cross-Cultural, Cross-Species, and Evolutionary Perspectives by Dr. Bruce Rind". Routledge.