Just when I thought Academia couldn't sink any lower.

Andersson’s claim that acceptable gay identity has been narrowed down further and further

I think the vast majority of gay men do not consider it an acceptable gay identity. Anything does not and should not go in the gay community. The vast majority of gay men, like the vast majority of people in general, do not agree with this kind of interest in children.

Trying to associate this with homosexuality and normalise it within it is harmful to everyone.

Yes. But even then… months for people to say WTF publicly.

I was an academic for nearly 20 years, in the humanities too, so I do know the journal. It does strike me that a lot of dodgy stuff in the social sciences and humanities might be shielded a bit by much smaller readerships and the ways in which people access materials.

How on earth can the resources of a University (supervisor time, offices, energy, heating etc) been devoted to this rather than more funding for cancer research, or anything scientific and not harmful to children.

The more I read, the more I'm beginning to agree with the point of view that humanities funding needs to be cut if they can't fucking root out this shit before it gets to publication. It's harmful to children.

Some of the academics on those threads are talking about how the paper is referenced for fucks sake.

There has been a conviction for possessing manga material in 2014, I can’t see how this material is any different.

soranews24.com/2014/10/23/u-k-man-sentenced-for-prohibited-images-of-manga-children/amp/

I know nothing about manga, but one of Anderssons YouTube vids claims it is all erotic. On phone so can't link ...

It probably says something about Qualitative Research as a journal that people are only picking up on it now.

Yes, I understood it was fairly highly ranked.

I think it says something about how fearful people in academia are about speaking up and speaking out even when something is this obviously illegal, immoral and harmful to children.

"we're several months post publication before anyone's gone 'what the holy fuck?!'

I just hope that means it was mostly unread.

Vile, he admits his preferences and hopefully something positive will come out of this hideous state of affairs.

I have a big issue with the rise of anime and manga, whilst there is clearly CSA imagery here and he is unashamedly open about his preference and also porn such as hentai. There is also regular anime with the big eyes, schoolgirl uniforms and less overt stuff. There are arguments such as that demon may look 14 but she is actually a thousand years old crap. I had this argument in a gaming party a couple of years ago and that was their excuse, I have met a lot of anime fans in gaming and there is a lot of cross over between these two cultures. I am not anti gamer, I am one but there is a subset of socially inept males that game and live a total fantasy life. Some of these slip in to incel territory. Anime is awful regarding it’s portrayal of underage girls and boys. There is also a racist element as it fetishises Asians.

Talk about DARVO. Trying to excuse paedophilia as a normal part of gay male experience is a homophobic thing to do.

It's not surprising the 'professional homosexuals' were up in arms and did not like their sexuality being equated with paedophilia and I think the natural conclusion here is that the majority of adults of any sexual orientation are NOT PAEDOPHILES, and are opposed to paedophilia NOT that 'acceptable gay identity has been narrowed down further and further.'

Adults sexualising children is NOT an 'acceptable identity', is illegal, and the vast, overwhelming majority of adults gay, straight or bi agree with that.

It's not homophobic to say that it's revolting trying to equate homosexuality with paedophilia. I'm fucking outraged on behalf of the many gay men I know. I'm sure they will be too.

' wrt new labels/words, this is the section I mean, same article as above:

'In “Gay Men’s Worst Friend” he elaborates on the theme of pederast relationships – which should not be confused with pedophilia: “There are homosexual relations that could be called pederasty - that is of course what the homophobes are referring to when they accuse gay men of being pedophiles. These pederastic relations between younger and older men were previously called homosexuality and were defended by the gay movement as an expression of homosexuality. Then the gay movement accepted the homophobes’ rhetoric, started calling these relations pedophilia and didn’t want to have anything more to do with them.'

The gay news article defending 'Destroyer' is an interesting (and in places disturbing, I should add) read.

www.gay-news.com/article04.php?sid=3412

'Andersson once said in an interview: “My own experience is that if you happen to have sex with your beauty ideal, something that I’ve only come close to since you by definition can’t have it, his beauty vanishes and he becomes what sex is: Meat.”'

'you can't by definition have it' is a paraphilia, mate. And the rest of that sentence is disgusting.

Article continues on the reaction to the magazine from the Swedish gay community:

'... he targets Andersson, who’s been taking part in the discussion over the phone, that he “of course sexualise[s] the young teenage boy. [...] I think you’re pushing the boundaries in a way that I don’t think is good. I think this opens up the possibility of abusing young people.”
'This homo-bobo criticism stings all the more sharply because it was in orchestra with the Swedish Ombudsman for Children and the extreme right wing. One could expect that “Destroyer” would be targeted by several neo-Nazi sites, but it still is a surprise that the “professional homosexuals” were up in arms too, and proof of Andersson’s claim that acceptable gay identity has been narrowed down further and further.'

Here we see the 'right wing' slur being used just as it is flung around on here. The whole article is an apology for paedophilia, whatever new labels or words they are proposing.

It probably says something about Qualitative Research as a journal that people are only picking up on it now.

It's a relatively highly ranked journal.

There seems to be so much about plagiarism and falsifying data but nothing about submissions that are based on indirect exploitation of others.

This is horrifying. Surely there must be some standards around this?

That twitter feed from academics discussing this is interesting.

I was wondering how long they were going to faff about using long words until someone mentioned the word paedophilia and mentioned the illegality of viewing child pornography (/sexual exploitation) in the UK.

It's criminal not just unethical.

Took a lot longer to use the p word than good old MN, but finally someone mentioned it and one brave academic mentioned how queer studies can be used a cover for normalising paedophilia.

Good for that academic. Can we have some more plain speaking please?

Most of my friends are academics but I do have sympathy with those who don't want to fund universities and academic research when illegal research that harms children (anything that normalises sexualisation of children is harmful to them) is funded and supported within the structures and we're several months post publication before anyone's gone 'what the holy fuck?!'

Can the police please check the hard drives of everyone involved (and no, 'it was research' doesn't matter if it's illegal).

I do wonder WTF the editor dealing with it was thinking in accepting that paper. And the two reviewers.

Kate Moles is the editor in chief for Qualitative Research apparently. I would imagine she’s got a lot of emails about this.

It was first published in April. It probably says something about Qualitative Research as a journal that people are only picking up on it now.

TBH I think this is past 'ethical approval' and into police territory.

And he does say in a recent youtube that his current project failed ethics approval.

It’s not true that you don’t need ethical approval for research involving documents rather than people. The sensitivity of the topic and the social impact matters considerably too. As it should.

And he did talk to people. Talking to people about their master story habits and preference for cartoon CSA images within that is a subject that screams maximum level of ethical scrutiny!

'“Destroyer” always remained firmly within the boundaries of the law, which has been confirmed officially several times. As Andersson lived in Prague at the time of publication of the first issues, someone had filed a complaint with the Czech embassy in Stockholm; subsequently he had to report to the police in Prague. After a short interview and after studying the material the police officers said the case was closed and they’d found nothing wrong. The police even stated that they didn’t understand why anyone would file a complaint on the magazine, “but I suppose the reason must be homophobia.” Later, when Andersson lived in Berlin but still had “Destroyer” printed in the Czech Republic he was also once stopped at a routine check at customs, but again they found nothing wrong with the material.'

www.gay-news.com/article04.php?sid=3412

It's the same person, I'm sure of it.

And here's a thesis/paper written on 'Destroyer' magazine. It's in Swedish but the keywords themselves deserve a content warning for CSA:

su.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A198151&dswid=-5556

Ah, here we go:

filmfreeway.com/KarlAndersson

'Karl Andersson is an ethnographer with a master's degree in Visual and Media Anthropology from Freie Universität Berlin. He has a background in journalism and publishing. Karl is currently doing a PhD at the University of Manchester.'

Linking the Karl Andersson who published 'Destroyer' :

In this 2012 interview, Andersson, publisher of Destroyer, discusses Berlin, where he lives.

'...Germany, where Andersson now lives. “It’s more fun!” he says of Berlin, his adopted home city.'

www.out.com/entertainment/2012/01/09/destroyer-sweden-zine-teenage-boy

This academic profile shows he studied in Berlin from 2018-10-01 to 2020-10-01 | MA (Visual and Media Anthropology)

orcid.org/0000-0003-0069-8683

Not conclusive, but it seems quite likely that they are the same person.

He is very definitely very open with his sexual proclivities towards underage boys. I'm normally a big defender of academic freedom but he goes far too far and I am honestly, surprised, yes, that he has not been arrested either here or in Sweden.

This man should have been arrested by now, yes?

Oh, my!

"The films that are called ‘barely legal’ feature men dressed as boys,” says Andersson, 36. “I find it quite uninteresting. It’s just drag. The models in Destroyer are well under 18.”

www.out.com/entertainment/2012/01/09/destroyer-sweden-zine-teenage-boy