Allyn Walker hysteria

There’s a new Rind publication just out:

I am not endorsing it by sharing the link. Prostasia would never use terminology like “minor-older sex.”

4 Likes

I ordered the book as well, before Amazon decides to take it off.

1 Like

The disgusting thing is that Amazon openly listed Xi Jinping’s works about “socialism with Chinese characters for the new era”… Yes, that’s the obnoxiously long title. You know the actual dangerous stuff. To put things into perspective, do they have Mein Kampf (a much shorter title)?

2 Likes

Yes, $10.99 in Kindle format, also the Communist Manifesto and Quotations from Chairman Mao (the little red book).

1 Like

The Rind study was very controversial, even for its time, and has largely been discredited (if not ‘debunked’) by the academic community, as other studies have failed to reproduce enough evidence to warrant their controversial conclusion, that being that adult-child sexual activity was not inherently abusive and that all harm caused by it were secondary.

Also, the APA merely published it, they didn’t ‘support’ it.

1 Like

I feel like this couldn’t be said enough.

I don’t want proper evidence-based approaches to CSA perpetration to be hijacked by pro-contact MAPs with papers like this being used as their ammo.

1 Like

Found Allyn’s response to these claims so I figured I should make sure it’s included here for future reference

4 Likes

Dr. Walker SPECIFICALLY suggested that VIRTUAL/FICTIONAL materials, where no real children were abused, would be a valid option, as such materials do not involve the sexual abuse/exploitation of a child in order to exist.

6 Likes

Apologies for reopening an old thread, but I reached out to a legal group about their misleading article regarding this controversy and figured it would be worth sharing in case others are interested in doing similar outreach.

Full text of the email with links (some stuff might be different from the image because I'm still editing)

I am reaching out regarding your article “Minor Attracted Person – A Troubling Phrase Causing Controversy”. While I understand the concerns it conveys and the importance of getting things right when it comes to child sexual abuse, I believe you have overlooked some important points.

First and foremost, neither “pedophile” nor “minor-attracted person” is intended to describe someone who has sexually abused a child. The former is a medical term describing individuals who are sexually attracted to prepubescent children, and it appears in the DSM-5 and the ICD-11. The latter is an umbrella term, used by mental health experts to describe anyone who is attracted to minors (including pedophiles). Because it includes people who are not pedophiles but may be at risk of sexually offending against minors (such as ephebophiles, which you refer to in your article), the term is considered more concise and accurate and is preferred among child sexual abuse prevention experts, as can be seen in recent studies.

Words already exist to describe people who sexually abuse children: “sex offender,” “sexual abuser,” “child molester” (as you point out in your article), etc. Conflating them with medical and research terminology not only confuses the public, but also makes it harder for child protection experts who use those words in their work to communicate important findings. Findings that could help survivors get justice in cases where you provide representation. I believe we all owe it to children who have been abused and those who are at risk of being abused to ensure accurate information about why abuse happens and how it can be prevented is as widely accessible as possible.

To be clear, “minor-attracted person” is not a word that carries any meaning regarding sexual abuse. It refers specifically and exclusively to attractions. Are there MAPs who commit abuse? Of course. But those people can still be called child molesters, even if their sexual thoughts make them a MAP. The phrase does not in any way diminish the seriousness of child sexual abuse. Because it does not refer to an action, your comparison to phrases like “life takers” and “others’ property preferrers” doesn’t make sense.

You also emphasize the importance of ensuring MAPs do not offend, and I agree that it is important to ensure abuse is prevented by working with MAPs who are at risk of committing sexual violence. Even here, however, the term has some value. “MAP” provides a non-stigmatizing way to refer to attractions (not the act of sexual abuse). The benefit here can be found in a 2020 study, which concluded that stigma (such as the social stigma carried by words like “pedophile”) can actually make MAPs more likely to offend. As your article states, “it’s always better safe than sorry when it comes to kids,” so shouldn’t we encourage the use of terms that are both more accurate and less likely to contribute to someone’s risk of harming a child?

I understand that these concepts are novel to the public, but they are well-established in the field of child protection research. This can be seen in the fact that Allyn Walker was recently hired by the widely-regarded Moore Center for the Prevention of Child Sexual Abuse at Johns Hopkins University and invited to give a plenary address at the 2022 Association for the Treatment and Prevention of Sexual Abuse, a renowned sexual abuse prevention organization that also provides support services to help those who have abused in the past live a non-offending life going forward.

In the end, we all want to prevent sexual abuse where possible and bring justice to victims when it occurs. I hope you will consider rewriting the article in a way that better reflects this mission. If you are interested in learning more, please let me know and I can pass along contact information for some well-known child protection experts and organizations who may be interested in telling you about their work. You can also check out this open letter to Allyn Walker’s previous employer signed by over 60 “researchers and clinicians in the fields of sexual abuse prevention, mental health, human sexuality, and criminology” in support of Walker’s research.

5 Likes

I was not aware of this article… I’d expect a publication made by a law firm to be more well-read on these types of matters, knowing better than to target employees of Johns Hopkins University.

2 Likes

They wrote the article on the day that Allyn Walker’s JHU employment was announced. Not sure if they knew about it or if it played a role in them writing the article. They have an email address listed at the bottom of the page if anyone else wants to reach out, especially from the perspective of a survivor who cares about preventing abuse.

1 Like

Reply I received. Their contact info is in the article if anyone else wants to reach out and encourage them rewrite something that is blatantly harmful to prevention efforts and does a disservice to survivors of abuse by spreading misinformation about why abuse occurs.
image

5 Likes

Idk how I missed this. It’s an incredibly in-depth look at the internal shortcomings at ODU that led to Allyn Walker’s dismissal.

[Update: it looks like this was plagarized from the Chronicle of Higher Education, but I’m leaving it posted since there’s no ads so viewing it won’t support the plagarizer and the CHE requires an account to read the original]

4 Likes

I read the whole article and I gotta say…

“Flush em all out into the open by letting them think its ok to share your predatory nature, then exterminate them all. Allyn Walker, you’re in the open and you’re not hard to find,” one person tweeted.

Okay, I’m waiting for the punchline… Oh, wait, you’re serious aren’t you?

At ODU, “pedophilia is not welcomed. And neither is the idea of MAPs,” the protest’s organizer told the Mace & Crown. “There is no such thing as a minor-attracted person.”

It’s official! MAPs don’t exist! Looks like all this anti-MAP hysteria is just fake news!

“Many individuals have shared with me the view that the phrase ‘minor-attracted people’ is inappropriate and should not be utilized as a euphemism for behavior that is illegal, morally unacceptable, and profoundly damaging,” Hemphill said. “It is important to call pedophilia what it is.

As a father,” the president continued, “I am troubled by this narrative and its potential consequences for my children and that of future generations.”

You heard it here! MAPs don’t exist, but pedophiles do!

“Research into sensitive topics and the expression of new or controversial views lie at the heart of academic research. … At the same time,” Hemphill wrote, “this freedom carries with it the obligation to speak and write with care and precision, particularly on a subject that has caused pain in so many lives.”

“It was all Allyn Walker’s fault. If they didn’t do all of this research on pedophilia, we wouldn’t have had this moral outrage.”

Hemphill insists he was misunderstood. In an email to The Chronicle, he wrote that his statement “was about the narrative” around pedophilia, “specifically the behavior, not Dr. Walker or their research.” The university “has not and will not” criticize Walker’s research, he wrote. “In my messages to campus around this matter, I addressed the issue of civil discourse generally by underscoring an inclusive and supportive community specifically,” the president said. “My words clearly called for compassion, concern, and support for all and by all.”

“It wasn’t actually Allyn Walker’s fault. I know I implied that it was, but it really wasn’t. You people misconstrued what I said. Also, pedophilia is bad.”

In a message to faculty, staff, and students, Hemphill ended a summary of the past two weeks on a positive note. “The vast majority of Monarchs engaged in civil discourse, even those among us for whom personal experience made the subject of child sexual abuse especially painful,” the president said.

“We protected freedom of speech. We rejected violence. And, we took the necessary steps to protect life and safety — a prerequisite to the exercise of the academic and other freedoms we cherish.”

“Allyn Walker left the University! THANK GOD! I see this as an absolute win!”

Hemphill has reiterated to concerned professors that the university is committed to academic freedom, and that the administrative leave was meant to keep both the campus and Walker safe. “It was done out of an immense amount of care and concern,” the president told The Chronicle in an email. Hemphill said that the university’s police department reviewed “approximately 3,000 threats” related to the Walker controversy, and that “many” were found to be credible. “Such threats included bodily harm and even death,” Hemphill said. “For our University, this was always a safety issue and never an issue of academic freedom or free speech.”

“When I say “many”, I mean 69% of the threats were found to be credi- DON’T LAUGH, THAT’S THE PERCENTAGE!”

This is why reading and critical thinking are important.

4 Likes

People say pedophiles have urges…every day I wake up and have to resist the urge to send Hemphill passive-agressive emails

4 Likes

Fuck what happened to Professor Walker and fuck everybody who called for their resignation (or worse). First sentence of the fucking book:

Allow me to be clear: This book does not promote sexual contact between adults and minors

Reading and reading comprehension are elementary education. But when that meddlesome species of ape known as homo sapiens would rather succumb to emotion than use that lump of computer meat between their ears for something more logical, knowledge matters very little.

Sorry for being so cringy and overly melodramatic, but seriously! My blood is on fire after reading that article…

3 Likes

Sad that the university sold out there own staff. They don’t even know what allyn walker supports (or are just lying) Old dominion clearly doesn’t give a fuck about there own staff. Also just because you receive threats doesn’t mean you should fire someone, it sets a really bad standard. If some right wing wierdos had threatened allyn walker just for being queer would they have fired them?

5 Likes

A bunch of weirdos did threaten Allyn Walker for being queer, even if they won’t admit it

6 Likes

There is a lot I could say about Hemphill’s reaction to this affair, but for the sake of my own sanity I’m gonna reduce it to two words:

Pathetic. Coward.

4 Likes

I’ve been keeping tabs on this story more frequently than usual, and I gotta say I’m happy to see that Walker is still with JHU, doing good work in spite of all the smearing and uninformed/misguided opposition.

6 Likes