View source for Rachel Hope Cleves

'''Rachel Hope Cleves''' (born 1975) is an American-Canadian historian, specializing in early American history with research areas including gender and sexuality. Her most relevant work for MAPs and their allies is her 2020 article and book-length study on once-famous historical libertine / sex-positive MAP figure [[Norman Douglas]]. Her book on Douglas, titled ''Unspeakable: A Life Beyond Sexual Morality'' ((University of Chicago Press, 2020),<ref>[http://library.lol/main/4FB01D8582CB462BF79D0CF28A43BF00 Unspeakable PDF]</ref> reviewed by the ''Percy Foundation'',<ref>[http://wapercyfoundation.org/?page_id=1056 Percy Foundation on Cleves]</ref> was awarded the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize by the Canadian Historical Association in 2021. The award recognizes the best scholarly book in a field other than Canadian history.<ref>https://cha-shc.ca/prize-winner/rachel-hope-cleves/</ref><ref>https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/jcha/2022-v32-n2-jcha07615/1095575ar/</ref>

Cleves has written many other relevant articles. In 2020, she co-authored an open-access introduction to a special issue on ''Restoring Intergenerational Dynamics to Queer History'',<ref>https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/historical-reflections/46/1/historical-reflections.46.issue-1.xml</ref> along with a separate article on Douglas.<ref>https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/historical-reflections/46/1/hrrh460104.xml</ref> She has also written a general article on the history of intergenerational sex, "From pederasty to pedophilia", in 2017.<ref>https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/hic3.12435</ref> In an academic blog ("Notches", 10 May, 2022),<ref>[https://notchesblog.com/2022/05/10/how-to-write-the-history-of-pederasty-in-the-age-of-groomers/ Notches blog link]</ref> which includes scholarly commentaries on ''Unspeakable'' by critical thinkers such as [[Joseph J. Fischel]] and [[Jana Funke]], Cleves uses the term "heretic" / "heretical" to describe the views expressed on the blog, including her own, after declaring that "paedophiles are not monsters." 

For the ''Washington Times'', she has written that "Roy Moore is not a pedophile" (2017),<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/roy-moore-is-not-a-pedophile/2017/11/19/1a9ae238-cb21-11e7-aa96-54417592cf72_story.html</ref> and for the ''Conversation'' (2019),<ref>https://theconversation.com/what-will-happen-to-michael-jacksons-legacy-a-famed-writers-fall-could-offer-clues-113327</ref> compared the legacy of Michael Jackson to Norman Douglas. Her writing is unique for using an "abuse" framework whilst also being willing to complicate it, acknowledging the reality of [[Accounts_and_Testimonies|former young people's perspectives]] and [[Research:_Secondary_Harm#Self-appraisal_of_abuse,_Self-Perception_and_"Consent"|self-perception]] which do not easily fit an abuse/victim/survivor framework, as they often considered meeting Douglas one of the best things to have ever happened to them and remained friends with him into later life. Her book states that she feels "misplaced sympathy" for Douglas, and makes very clear that she does not support sexual relationships between pre-pubescents and adults. As the ''Percy Foundation'' review argues, there is much to criticize in her work. 

==2023 controversy==

In April 2023, Cleves was pilloried on twitter by right-wing conservatives in a hostile twitter thread<ref>[https://twitter.com/cosminDZS/status/1638217303384035328 The twitter thread]</ref> which includes at least one anti-Semitic reply which points out her part-Jewish heritage to imply that people who are not bigoted towards MAPs are Jewish ("Every Time").<ref>[https://twitter.com/knowingly_ghost/status/1639015485026226181/photo/1https://twitter.com/knowingly_ghost/status/1639015485026226181/photo/1 anti-Semitic reply in that twitter thread, with the implication of the post being that people who 'support pedophilia' are Jewish 'every time']</ref> The [[Moral Panic]] has remained small and within conservative/right wing outlets such as the ''Daily Caller'',<ref>https://dailycaller.com/2023/03/21/rachel-hope-cleves-pedophilia-historian-intergenerational-sex-rape-10-year-old-boy-abuse/</ref> and her university faculty profile<ref>https://www.uvic.ca/humanities/history/people/faculty/profiles/clevesrachel.php</ref> states she is currently "On leave", coincidentally timed just after she has been the subject of hostile twitter attention and has now set her twitter account to private.<ref>https://twitter.com/RachelCleves?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Escreen-name%3Arachelcleves%7Ctwcon%5Es1</ref> 

Compared to [[Allyn Walker]], [[Karl Andersson]] and [[Jacob Breslow]] who were subject to national media attention, we at Newgon are confident that Cleves, an award winning tenured faculty member who has worked at the same university since 2009, will withstand this media scrutiny. We recommend the ''Percy Foundation'''s detailed review of her work as cited in our [[Norman Douglas]] page, and we have noted Cleves' use of [[Gayle Rubin]]'s 'Charmed Circle' theory and partly similar thinking to deceased MAP figure [[Roger Moody]].  

==References==

[[Category:Official Encyclopedia]][[Category:People]][[Category:People: Academics]][[Category:People: Critical Analysts]][[Category:Research: Broader Perspectives]][[Category:History & Events: Personal Scandals]][[Category:People: American]]