Santiago de Chile.- The University of Chile was involved in a serious scandal after two theses promoting pedophilia went viral, which was already repudiated by academics, authorities and citizens in general.
“Pedophiles and infants: folds and folds of desire” and “The pedagogue’s denied desire: being a pedophile”, are the titles of the research papers that caused astonishment for justifying child sexual abuse, and which can still be consulted in the repository university website.
The academic texts were published in different years but they coincide in endorsing the “need” to listen to pedophiles, as well as the “right” of minors to “exercise” their sexuality. These premises violate national laws and international treaties in favor of children.
In the case of “Pedophiles and infants: folds and folds of desire”, it is a work written in 2016 by Leonardo Arce as the culmination of his Master’s degree in Gender and Cultural Studies in Latin America from the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities.
“The present thesis is the reflexive bet of a consequence usually avoided by an accumulation of reflections and disciplines on childhood that appeal to a new representation of the infant as a subject of law, a subject with a voice or a complete subject”, he points out.
The investigation makes clear the author’s position to relativize child sexual abuse, but the dedication is even more forceful.
“Dedicated to boys and girls with restless desire, so that they can ever touch and be touched without fear or guilt. To pedophiles with guilty desire, so that they can exorcise their discomfort and fears by loving those they love,” he says.
explanations
On the other hand, “The denied desire of the pedagogue: being a pedophile”, is a thesis written in 2020 by Mauricio Quiroz Muñoz to qualify for the degree of Bachelor of Media Education.
“What is the relationship of education with the pedophile? Are they intrinsically contrary? The following work problematizes the figure of the pedophile in relation to education based on the reflections that René Schérer makes in his text La pedagogía pervertida (1983) “, explains the work.
From this framework influenced by psychoanalysis, the philosophy of desire, deconstruction and the context of May 68, the author adds, it is that he intends to reread key texts on education to search in two different eras for the relationship between pedophilia-education.
“This relationship is expressed as the forgetfulness of sexuality in education along with the construction of the student as a subject without a voice. The figure of the pedophile from a historical and philosophical approach forces us as pedagogues to rethink our conception of the sexuality of the childhood, adolescent and her own, thus removing the dogmas of adult centrism”, she affirms.
The viralization of both academic works unleashed a wave of rejection in the media and on social networks, forcing the Faculty of Philosophy and Humanities to issue a statement announcing that it will initiate an investigation.
“Given the public concern that two projects to complete studies of programs dependent on our Faculty have raised, we deeply regret their negative effects and for this reason we want to reaffirm our permanent and unrestricted commitment to defending the rights of children and adolescents”, he pointed.
Repudiations
Although it recognized “the high sensitivity” of the topic addressed, the Faculty clarified that they are academic works “of a purely theoretical nature, that do not report intervention on human populations, and that, even taking into account how debatable their content turns out to be, they complied with requirements” to be accepted.
The answer was insufficient. This was warned by 26 academics who signed a statement in which they criticized the position of the university authorities, particularly with regard to the second thesis of the controversy, since it is the result of a seminar that they did not even know existed.
“We express our absolute rejection of the instrumentalization of academic thought and space, as well as pedagogy, for the elaboration of discourses that are potentially linked to crimes that violate the rights of children, children, and adolescents,” they said.
They also regretted “that the idea of pedophilia is associated with teaching, especially at a time when teaching and pedagogical studies are highly challenged by the educational crisis that demands responses to urgent problems.”
On behalf of the national government, the Minister of Education, Marco Antonio Ávila, described these events as “serious” and trusted that, under the principle of university autonomy, fundamental rights could be guaranteed.
“We must protect Human Rights and, especially, the best interests of boys and girls in all spaces, especially in training ones,” he said.
