August 2009

Gieles, F.E.J., ‘Research has shown…’ On ideology and science, KOINOS Magazine # 60, 2008 # 4. 

Relatively little research has been carried out into the ways in which intergenerational contacts are experienced. That which we ‘know’ about (sexual) relations between young persons and older persons mainly consists of interpretations of studies carried out among ‘abuse victims’. Those who get different finding – simply by asking questions and listening to people – are seen as having been taken in by the ‘cognitive mistakes’ paedophiles make. All this does not amount to critiques of scientific method, but to ideology.

Gieles, F.E.J., Research, models and ideology - How to combat false ideology? KOINOS Magazine # 62, 2009 # 2. 

In Koinos 60 we described some findings from research of intergenerational intimacy. We mentioned research that was not prejudiced, or at least tried to examine experiences in an open manner. In many other cases however, morality interferes with science. Certain facts or ideas are not allowed to exist, not allowed to be true, so they cannot be true. How to combat false ideology wrapped up as ‘science’? 

Gieles, F.E.J., Go Dutch - A Practice Sample; Youth and Sexuality in the Netherlands; Paper presented at the 19^th World Congress for Sexual Health, World Association of Sexology, Göteborg, Sweden, June 2009

The Dutch are very open about sex. Sexual education starts at the age of toddlers. Contacts with the mothers are open and intimate, those with the fathers are friendly. Children have much privacy. Contraceptives are easily to obtain. [...]
Most of the Dutch youth have good sexual ethics and act along those lines. [...]The Netherlands has very low rates of abortion, young unmarried mothers and venereal disease. Dutch children are among the happiest children of the western world, in sharp contrast to those in the UK and the USA. 

Britain's Schools Minister plans to introduce sex lessons for five-year-olds. They already have them in the Netherlands. Is that why they also have the lowest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe?

Two sociologists in Philadelphia, Kathleen A. Bogle, of La Salle University, and Maria Kefalas, of St. Joseph’s University, both specialists in teen sexual behavior, told Parker-Pope that they’d had to struggle mightily to get people out of their “moral panic” mindset, and make them understand that teens are not “in a downward spiral” or “out of control.” - “They just don’t believe you. You might as well be telling them the earth is flat,” Kefalas told me when I called to follow up with her this week.

Dutch children have been rated the most fortunate children in Europe [according to a Unicef report].
"Much of this [...] comes from the relationship that Dutch parents have with their children. And, from the fact that less pressure is put on them at school."