‘Even With a One-Year-Old:’ SUNY Fredonia ‘Reviewing’ Prof After He Defends Pedophilia

SUNY Prof Stephen Kershnar
LibsofTikTok/Twitter
Alana Mastrangelo

A State University of New York at Fredonia (SUNY Fredonia) professor is under review after video clips surfaced on social media of him defending pedophilia. In the videos, the professor said it’s “not obvious” to him that pedophilia is “wrong.” Professor Stephen Kershnar claims in a video that adults having sex with children can be ‘permissible,’ saying: “the notion that it’s wrong, even with a one-year-old, it’s not quite obvious to me.”

“Image that an adult male wants to have sex with a 12-year-old girl, imagine that she’s a willing participant. A very standard, very widely held view is there’s something deeply wrong about this, and [that] it’s wrong independent of it being criminalized,” SUNY Fredonia professor Stephen Kershnar said.

“It’s not obvious to me that it is in fact wrong,” Kershnar added. “I think this is a mistake. And I think that exploring why it’s a mistake will tell us, not only things about adult-child sex and statutory rape, but also about fundamental principles of morality.”

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Another clip shows Kershnar appearing to discuss a “threshold” for adult-child sexual relations, adding that “it’s not quite obvious” to him that sexual relations are wrong, “even with a one-year-old.”

“Even if you are looking for a threshold — let’s say there’s a threshold, I’m making this number up, but let’s say it’s at age eight — still, that tells you that some adult-child sex is permissible,” he said.

The professor went on to say that “the notion that it’s wrong, even with a one-year-old, it’s not quite obvious to me.”

“There are reports in some cultures of grandmothers fellating their baby boys to calm them down when they’re colicky,” Kershnar claimed.

“Now, I don’t know if this is true,” he added. “But this is sort widely reported as occurring in at least one culture, and it working — that the grandmothers believe this actually works.”

“If this were to be true — and again, I don’t know it to be true — if it were to be true, it’s hard to see what would be wrong with it,” Kershnar said, suggesting that pedophilia is not wrong, even when there is an unwilling child participant involved.

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In the video clip, the professor went on to expound on his thoughts regarding “willing” and “unwilling” participation:

So, yeah, I guess I think, no, I don’t think there’s a blanket period beyond which this is permissible. If we’re interested in willing participation, which is the way I structured it, then yeah, there’s a point below which people aren’t willing participants in anything, because they don’t have intentions or they don’t have the sort of mental state that allows for willing participation.

But no, I don’t think there’s a blanket wrong at any age.

A third clip shows Kershnar appearing to justify child-adult sexual relations by arguing that children are willing participants “all the time” in activities that they do not “fully understand,” such as sports, and preparing for their Bar Mitzvah.

“They might think that children can’t be willing things in general,” he said. “It’s an odd view in that they seem to will things all the time. They will participation in kickball. They will showing up and participating in Bar Mitzvah lessons — so, there’s all sorts of things that they will.”

“You might think, ‘Well, maybe there’s something distinct about sex, that they can’t really understand it.’ It’s not clear to me that what they’re not getting at is consent,” Kershnar continued.

The professor added that he believes people would say, “Okay, they’re willing participants, they’re voluntary participants, they have some understanding of what’s going on — but they haven’t consented.”

To that, Kershnar responds by stating, “Perhaps that’s so, but that’s a different claim from they’re being unwilling.”

“There’s lots of activities that children engage in that they don’t understand all that well,” he insisted. “For example, when you, when you first show up to participate in a Judo tournament, or you prepare for your Bar Mitzvah.”

“You have a rough idea, but it’s not clear how much you fully understand it,” Kershnar said.

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On Tuesday night, SUNY Fredonia President Stephen Kolison addressed the video clips in a statement on Twitter, saying that the university “is aware of a video posted online involving one of its professors.”

“The views expressed by the professor are reprehensible and do not represent the values of SUNY Fredonia in any way, shape or form,” Kolison added. “They are solely the professor’s views. The matter is being reviewed.”

Kershnar’s biography on the Fredonia’s website touts him as a “distinguished teaching professor” of philosophy, and notes that his work includes publications on “abortion, adult-child sex, hell, most valuable player, pornography, punishment, sexual fantasies, slavery, and torture.”

The professor’s LinkedIn page states that he has been an employee of the State University of New York for nearly 24 years.

Kershnar is also the author of “Pedophilia and Adult-Child Sex: A Philosophical Analysis,” “A Liberal Argument for Slavery,” and “Does the Pro-Life Worldview Make Sense?: Abortion, Hell, and Violence Against Abortion Doctors.”

SUNY Fredonia did not immediately respond to Breitbart News’ request for comment on if Kershnar has been placed on leave while he is under review, or when the university learned of the professor’s views on pedophilia.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.

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