Judith A. Reisman
Encyclopedia
Judith A. Reisman is an American
cultural conservative writer best known for her criticism and condemnation of the work and legacy of Alfred Kinsey
. She is noted as "the founder of the modern anti-Kinsey movement." Her commentary is currently featured by WorldNetDaily
and Salvo (magazine)
.
has documented how her daughter's molestation set Reisman on the path of researching Kinsey's activities. Following the sexual assault
, the boy and his family slipped out of the country, while her daughter lapsed into a deep depression
. Fifteen years later she died from a brain aneurysm, which Reisman suspected was linked to the earlier trauma.
Prior to the release of the 2004 film Kinsey
, Reisman and Laura Schlessinger
attempted to place an advertisement "alleging Kinsey was a pervert and a pedophile".
in 1985, Reisman warned that because of the entertainer's idolization by youth, their publication would destigmatize
and "encourage voluntary display by youngsters," leading to an increase in child pornography.
techniques employed by homosexuals rival those of the United States Marine Corps
. Reisman cited "a clear avenue for the recruitment of children" by homosexuals in her public support of Oregon Ballot Measure 9 (1992)
. In 1994 Reisman spoke at a conference of Christian right
leaders in Colorado Springs, saying that homosexual "recruitment is loud; it is clear; it is everywhere." She estimated the homosexual population at the time to be 1-2% but predicted at least 20% (and possibly over 30%) "of the young population will be moving into homosexual activity" as a result of recruitment.
: when viewed, an addictive mixture of chemicals which she has dubbed "erototoxins," floods the brain, causing harmful influences to it. Reisman hopes that MRI studies will prove porn-induced physical brain damage and predicts lawsuits against publishers and distributors of pornography similar to those against Big Tobacco
which resulted in the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. Further, if pornography can "subvert cognition," then "these toxic media should be legally outlawed, as is all other toxic waste, and eliminated from our societal structure." Finally, individuals who have suffered brain damage
from 'pornography are no longer expressing "free speech" and, for their own good, shouldn't be protected under the First Amendment
.'
, she endorses The Pink Swastika
, which elaborates on this view and has compared modern youth groups for gays to the Hitler Youth
.
trial of Dennis Barrie, then director of the Contemporary Arts Center
in Cincinnati, for displaying controversial photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe
, Reisman was called as the only expert witness
for the prosecution. In the previous year, Reisman had authored an editorial in The Washington Times
titled "Promoting Child Abuse as Art" which "accused Mapplethorpe of being both a Nazi and a child molester". The defense argued that she was not qualified as an art expert, but the judge allowed her to testify as a rebuttal witness. Among her credentials as a media specialist she listed: "preparation of educational videotapes and slide presentations for the Smithsonian Institution
[as well as having] worked for Scholastic magazine, created audio-visual segments for television's' Captain Kangaroo
' show, and did research for Attorney General Edwin Meese
's commission on pornography and for the conservative American Family Association
." During her testimony, Reisman did not discuss the sexually explicit content of Mapplethorpe's work, but rather argued that the five photographs were not works of art because they either did not display a human face, or, in the case of Self-Portrait, the face "...displayed no discernible emotion" and absent emotion, the placement of the photographs in a museum implied that the activities displayed were appropriate. During cross-examination by the defense on her views of homosexuality, Reisman testified that "anal sodomy is traumatically dysfunctional and is definitely associated with AIDS." She also claimed that the pictures of nude children legitimized pedophilia. The defense emphasized that Reisman's experience with art was limited to her work as a songwriter.
Barrie and the Center were ultimately acquitted of all charges by the jury.
, sued the Kinsey Institute, its then director June Reinisch and Indiana University
for defamation as well as intentional
and negligent infliction of emotional distress
regarding alleged attempts to censor
her book Kinsey, Sex and Fraud. The case was ultimately dismissed with prejudice in 1994.
Biographical entries
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cultural conservative writer best known for her criticism and condemnation of the work and legacy of Alfred Kinsey
Alfred Kinsey
Alfred Charles Kinsey was an American biologist and professor of entomology and zoology, who in 1947 founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University, now known as the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, as well as producing the Kinsey Reports and the Kinsey...
. She is noted as "the founder of the modern anti-Kinsey movement." Her commentary is currently featured by WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily is an American web site that publishes news and associated content from a U.S. conservative perspective. It was founded in May 1997 by Joseph Farah with the stated intent of "exposing wrongdoing, corruption and abuse of power" and is headquartered in Washington, D.C.-History:In...
and Salvo (magazine)
Salvo (magazine)
Salvo is a Christian magazine published by the Fellowship of St. James once a season that critiques media including books and other media. It also contains other informational articles. Most of the publication are articles by the magazine itself that have to do with Christian issues, etc. based on...
.
Advocating for children
Investigative journalist Max BlumenthalMax Blumenthal
Max Blumenthal is an American author, journalist, and blogger. A senior writer for The Daily Beast, he is the author of the New York Times bestselling book Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party....
has documented how her daughter's molestation set Reisman on the path of researching Kinsey's activities. Following the sexual assault
Sexual assault
Sexual assault is an assault of a sexual nature on another person, or any sexual act committed without consent. Although sexual assaults most frequently are by a man on a woman, it may involve any combination of two or more men, women and children....
, the boy and his family slipped out of the country, while her daughter lapsed into a deep depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
. Fifteen years later she died from a brain aneurysm, which Reisman suspected was linked to the earlier trauma.
Children in the Kinsey reports
Over the following years her accusations against Kinsey became increasingly serious; she said he was a fraud who had employed and relied on pedophiles for his research, and went on to claim that Kinsey himself sexually abused children. This allegation drew a response from Kinsey biographer James H. Jones, who wrote that unless new evidence to the contrary becomes available, Reisman's claims that Kinsey may have witnessed or personally participated in child molestation under the guise of scientific research must be considered groundless.Prior to the release of the 2004 film Kinsey
Kinsey (film)
Kinsey is a 2004 biographical film written and directed by Bill Condon. It describes the life of Alfred Kinsey , a pioneer in the area of sexology. His 1948 publication, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male was one of the first recorded works that tried to scientifically address and investigate...
, Reisman and Laura Schlessinger
Laura Schlessinger
Laura Catherine Schlessinger is an American talk radio host, socially conservative commentator and author. Her radio program consists mainly of her responses to callers' requests for personal advice and has occasionally featured her short monologues on social and political topics...
attempted to place an advertisement "alleging Kinsey was a pervert and a pedophile".
Sources of child sexual abuse
When Playboy and Penthouse printed nude photos of MadonnaMadonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
in 1985, Reisman warned that because of the entertainer's idolization by youth, their publication would destigmatize
Social stigma
Social stigma is the severe disapproval of or discontent with a person on the grounds of characteristics that distinguish them from other members of a society.Almost all stigma is based on a person differing from social or cultural norms...
and "encourage voluntary display by youngsters," leading to an increase in child pornography.
Homosexual recruitment of children
Reisman has claimed that the recruitmentHomosexual recruitment
Homosexual recruitment is a term used, primarily in the U.S., to describe alleged attempts by homosexuals to actively "recruit" otherwise heterosexual youths into the 'gay lifestyle'. Allegations of gay recruitment are sometimes leveled at efforts by gay activists to encourage homosexuals to "come...
techniques employed by homosexuals rival those of the United States Marine Corps
United States Marine Corps
The United States Marine Corps is a branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for providing power projection from the sea, using the mobility of the United States Navy to deliver combined-arms task forces rapidly. It is one of seven uniformed services of the United States...
. Reisman cited "a clear avenue for the recruitment of children" by homosexuals in her public support of Oregon Ballot Measure 9 (1992)
Oregon Ballot Measure 9 (1992)
Ballot Measure 9 was a ballot measure in the U.S. state of Oregon in 1992, concerning gay rights and public education, that drew widespread national attention.Measure 9 would have added the following text to the Oregon Constitution:...
. In 1994 Reisman spoke at a conference of Christian right
Christian right
Christian right is a term used predominantly in the United States to describe "right-wing" Christian political groups that are characterized by their strong support of socially conservative policies...
leaders in Colorado Springs, saying that homosexual "recruitment is loud; it is clear; it is everywhere." She estimated the homosexual population at the time to be 1-2% but predicted at least 20% (and possibly over 30%) "of the young population will be moving into homosexual activity" as a result of recruitment.
Erototoxins
Reisman has postulated a physical mechanism to account for the dangers she ascribes to pornographyPornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
: when viewed, an addictive mixture of chemicals which she has dubbed "erototoxins," floods the brain, causing harmful influences to it. Reisman hopes that MRI studies will prove porn-induced physical brain damage and predicts lawsuits against publishers and distributors of pornography similar to those against Big Tobacco
Big Tobacco
Big Tobacco is a pejorative term often applied to the tobacco industry in general, or more particularly to the "big three" tobacco corporations in the United States: Philip Morris , Reynolds American and Lorillard...
which resulted in the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement. Further, if pornography can "subvert cognition," then "these toxic media should be legally outlawed, as is all other toxic waste, and eliminated from our societal structure." Finally, individuals who have suffered brain damage
Brain damage
"Brain damage" or "brain injury" is the destruction or degeneration of brain cells. Brain injuries occur due to a wide range of internal and external factors...
from 'pornography are no longer expressing "free speech" and, for their own good, shouldn't be protected under the First Amendment
First Amendment to the United States Constitution
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering...
.'
Homosexuals and Nazism
Reisman has said that she believes that a homosexual movement in Germany gave rise to the Nazi Party and the HolocaustThe Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
, she endorses The Pink Swastika
The Pink Swastika
The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party is a book first published in 1995 by Scott Lively and Kevin Abrams.-Synopsis:According to the authors, homosexuality found in the Nazi Party contributed to the extreme militarism of Nazi Germany...
, which elaborates on this view and has compared modern youth groups for gays to the Hitler Youth
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
.
Mapplethorpe exhibition obscenity trial
During the 1990 obscenityObscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
trial of Dennis Barrie, then director of the Contemporary Arts Center
Contemporary Arts Center
The Contemporary Arts Center is a pioneering contemporary art museum located in Cincinnati, Ohio. The CAC is a non-collecting museum that focuses on new developments in painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, performance art and new media...
in Cincinnati, for displaying controversial photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe
Robert Mapplethorpe was an American photographer, known for his large-scale, highly stylized black and white portraits, photos of flowers and nude men...
, Reisman was called as the only expert witness
Expert witness
An expert witness, professional witness or judicial expert is a witness, who by virtue of education, training, skill, or experience, is believed to have expertise and specialised knowledge in a particular subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient that others may officially and legally...
for the prosecution. In the previous year, Reisman had authored an editorial in The Washington Times
The Washington Times
The Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...
titled "Promoting Child Abuse as Art" which "accused Mapplethorpe of being both a Nazi and a child molester". The defense argued that she was not qualified as an art expert, but the judge allowed her to testify as a rebuttal witness. Among her credentials as a media specialist she listed: "preparation of educational videotapes and slide presentations for the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
[as well as having] worked for Scholastic magazine, created audio-visual segments for television's
Captain Kangaroo
Captain Kangaroo is a children's television series which aired weekday mornings on the American television network CBS for nearly 30 years, from October 3, 1955 until December 8, 1984, making it the longest-running children's television program of its day...
Edwin Meese
Edwin "Ed" Meese, III is an attorney, law professor, and author who served in official capacities within the Ronald Reagan Gubernatorial Administration , the Reagan Presidential Transition Team , and the Reagan White House , eventually rising to hold the position of the 75th Attorney General of...
's commission on pornography and for the conservative American Family Association
American Family Association
The American Family Association is a 501 non-profit organization that promotes conservative Christian values, such as opposition to same-sex marriage, pornography, and abortion, as well as other public policy goals such as deregulation of the oil industry and lobbying against the Employee Free...
." During her testimony, Reisman did not discuss the sexually explicit content of Mapplethorpe's work, but rather argued that the five photographs were not works of art because they either did not display a human face, or, in the case of Self-Portrait, the face "...displayed no discernible emotion" and absent emotion, the placement of the photographs in a museum implied that the activities displayed were appropriate. During cross-examination by the defense on her views of homosexuality, Reisman testified that "anal sodomy is traumatically dysfunctional and is definitely associated with AIDS." She also claimed that the pictures of nude children legitimized pedophilia. The defense emphasized that Reisman's experience with art was limited to her work as a songwriter.
Barrie and the Center were ultimately acquitted of all charges by the jury.
Litigation against the Kinsey Institute
In 1991 Reisman, with an attorney from the Rutherford InstituteRutherford Institute
The Rutherford Institute is a non-profit group based in Charlottesville, Virginia dedicated to the defense of civil liberties, human rights, and religious liberty. It was founded in 1982 by John W. Whitehead...
, sued the Kinsey Institute, its then director June Reinisch and Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
for defamation as well as intentional
Intentional infliction of emotional distress
Intentional infliction of emotional distress is a tort claim of recent origin for intentional conduct that results in extreme emotional distress. Some courts and commentators have substituted mental for emotional, but the tort is the same...
and negligent infliction of emotional distress
Negligent infliction of emotional distress
The tort of negligent infliction of emotional distress is a controversial cause of action, which is available in nearly all U.S. states but is severely constrained and limited in the majority of them. The underlying concept is that one has a legal duty to use reasonable care to avoid causing...
regarding alleged attempts to censor
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
her book Kinsey, Sex and Fraud. The case was ultimately dismissed with prejudice in 1994.
See also
- Abstinence-only sex education, which Reisman supports.
- Anti-pornography movement in the United StatesAnti-pornography movement in the United StatesThe anti-pornography movement in the United States has existed ever since a 1969 Supreme Court decision which held that people could view whatever they wished in the privacy of their own homes. This caused President Lyndon B...
- Glenn GruenhagenGlenn GruenhagenGlenn H. Gruenhagen is a Minnesota politician and a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives who represents District 25A, which includes which includes portions of Le Sueur, Scott and Sibley counties in the south central part of the state...
, a Minnesota state politician who has denounced Kinsey, citing Reisman - Steve StockmanSteve StockmanSteve Stockman is a Republican politician who represented Texas's 9th Congressional District between 1995 and 1997.- Biography :Stockman was born in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, near Detroit. He graduated from Dondero High School....
, a former U.S. Representative from Texas, who sponsored a bill to investigate Kinsey's research.
External links
- Dr. Judith Reisman Official Website
- Videos of Judith Reisman in the C-SPANC-SPANC-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...
video archives.
Biographical entries
- Judith A. Reisman entry on SourceWatchSourceWatchSourceWatch is an internet wiki site that is a collaborative project of the liberal Center for Media and Democracy...