Fox News contributor Dr. Keith Ablow on the Fox News website today, in “Environment, Not Just Genetics, Determines Sexual Orientation,” likened pedophilia with sexual orientation. Pedophilia is a psychiatric disorder. Previously, in April, Ablow wrote a highly-controversial column suggesting that J. Crew CEO Jenna Lyons’ painting her son’s toenails pink amounted to “psychological sterilization.” And in May, Ablow penned a column attacking Chaz Bono so viciously Fox actually removed it. Today, Ablow falsely claimed transgender people “are on tortuous, tragic paths through confused identity issues.”
READ: Fox News Attacks J. Crew President For Ad With Son’s Toenails Pink
“Recently, I wrote a blog about a 10-year-old girl photographed in poses designed to look seductive, wearing very adult clothing, by the French edition of Vogue magazine,” Ablow’s column today begins. “I objected for a number of reasons, including my belief that sexual images of children, marketed to the public, can actually ‘create’ pedophiles.”
Dr. Keith Ablow is a Glenn Beck co-​author and former Fox News host, but he’s also a scientist by training, yet cites no studies, only his own feelings.
“Many of those who posted comments about the blog supported my criticism of Vogue, but objected to the notion that one’s sexual orientation can be shaped by one’s environment, including cultural forces,” Ablow continues. “They asserted that sexual orientation and the behavior resulting from it is entirely genetic, or ‘inborn’.”
It’s unclear why Ablow makes a jump from pedophilia to sexual orientation, except that Ablow chose to make it, rather than explain to his readers they are separate issues.
“I disagree. As a psychiatrist who has helped adolescents and adults make sense of their sexuality, I am convinced that, for many people, environment and social influences do indeed impact sexual desires and sexual behavior,” Ablow continues, with his misguided, ignorant pop-​psychology.
Again, Ablow cites no studies. The American Psychological Association, and most major medical associations hold that sexual orientation is created at birth, or in very early childhood. There are other studies, such as this one, or this one, that find conclusive evidence that sexual orientation is fixed at birth.
READ: Gay? Straight? Sexual Orientation Not A Choice, But Set At Birth
But regardless of whether sexual orientation is fixed at the moment of birth, or during the first few years of life, Ablow’s equation of pedophilia with sexual orientation is false, and continues the harmful, dangerous, and false theme among many conservatives that equates pedophiles with homosexuals, and that suggests that homosexuality can and should be discouraged, that homosexuality is wrong, and something, therefore, as he seems to come one step away from writing later, that homosexuality, like pedophilia, can and should be managed with medication.
Ludicrously, Ablow writes, “When a magazine publishes photos of a child which are intended to be erotic, and when many thousands of adult women purchase that magazine, thereby blessing its content, that normalizes the notion that children are appropriate objects of sexual fantasy. And it has the potential to encourage men who would otherwise never have expressed their unconscious sexual interests in children to actually act upon them.”
So, a heterosexual man seeing a copy of Vogue with an erotic photo of a young girl is going to become a pedophile? Does Ablow truly believe that?
And, therefore, we should outlaw images that might lead someone to a behavior Ablow finds “morally reprehensible?” Now, of course I find pedophilia morally reprehensible. But what if Ablow finds homosexuality “morally reprehensible?” Do we then ban all erotic images of homosexuality? Does he really believe a heterosexual man who sees enough gay porn will become homosexual — or want to try it?
(The question should also be asked, what’s wrong if a heterosexual man wants to try homosexuality? Or, vice versa?)
And Ablow continues his offensive ignorance.
“The same can be said for the celebration of transgender surgeries. When those who resort to major surgery to ‘become’ female or male are applauded on talk shows, rather than being empathized with because they are on tortuous, tragic paths through confused identity issues, that can encourage people to think that their own very understandable ambivalence about some aspects of masculinity or femininity could mean, instead, that they are trapped inside the wrong body. It can actually kindle gender dysphoria that was not consciously present and would never have been psychologically debilitating.”
So, according to Ablow, watching Oprah’s interview with Chaz Bono will magically make people transgender.
Have you had enough of his bunk yet?
I have.