Ken Plummer

Ken Plummer (Born in Palmers Green, London, April 4, 1946; Died November 2022, Essex) was a British sociologist and humanist academic who pioneered the sociological study of human sexuality, including teleiophilic and paedophilic homosexuality. He worked as an academic at the University of Essex from 1975 to 2005, where he took early retirement because of the need for a liver transplant. Plummer challenged misconceptions about MAPs and of young people as inherently asexual beings, and was heavily influenced by symbolic interactionism and social constructionism. Especially influenced by Kinsey researchers John Gagnon and William Simon, Plummer declared their now-classic 1973 book Sexual Conduct to be "quite probably the single most important general sociological study of sexuality that has ever been published." Plummer founded and editing the scholarly journal Sexualities, for which Plummer included the study of "Cross-generational Sexualities" as a topic in his 1995 proposal for the journal, accepted by the publisher Sage.

As part of his early research, Plummer joined PIE (The Paedophile Infomation Exchange) as a member in order to interview self-identifying paedophiles, and his writings on intergenerational sexuality are notable for their non-sensationalist and non-hostile approach. Plummer attempted to set a research agenda on the topic by constructing “a sociological baseline” for future research, and reviewed many relevant publications such as Wilson & Cox’s study of PIE members, “Childlovers: A Study of Paedophiles in Society”, and Edward Brongersma’s magnum opus on Boy-Love, Loving Boys: A Multidiciplinary Study.

Below we quote/summarize scholarship that can be found online, with links to archives/pdf files. See the end of this article for a full list of Plummer's relevant publications.

Excerpts and Summaries of Relevant Publications (1979-2010)

• Plummer, Ken. (1979). Images of Paedophilia. in M. Cook and G. Wilson, eds. Love and Attraction (Pergamon Press: London), pp. 537-540.

Newgon: Extending a conference paper orginally titled "Myths about Paedophilia", Plummer's chapter reports on what he calls "the first public meeting to discuss pedophilia", organized by the Paedophile Information Exhange (PIE's) and held on 19th September, 1977. Plummer contrasts the assumptions of protestors he spoke to outside the meeting, with research available about pedophiles, child sexuality, and intergenerational relationships. Plummer contests the assumptions that pedophiles are "dirty old men", strangers, interested in young children (PIE's own internal survey showed peak attraction from ages 10-13), and that pedophiles are "sick" or "inhuman monsters". He also cites various research to contest the view that children do not have sexual capacity ("sexual innocence"), that their erotic experiences with older people involve the use of force or are traumatic in-themselves, with "studies suggest[ing] that children's problems often flow from "the reactions of parents who respond to the event with such horror that it elevates the significance of the experience" (p. 539). Plummer qualifies his statements throughout, and ends by expressing the view that paedophilia should at least be allowed to be discussed:

"Pedophilia is a sensitive issue, especially at present. It is capable of evoking the most extreme and violent reactions amongst "ordinary" and sincere people. But I have tried to suggest in this article that many of the public conceptions of pedophilia are at odds with reality. : Given this, the most interesting question to ask now should focus on why people should feel so angry about pedophilia. Why should a university principal ban a pedophiliac from a conference; why should trade unions threaten strike action over pedophilia; and why should a hundred people charge along a street screaming, kicking and punching people simply because they wanted to talk about pedophilia?" (p. 539).

Plummer. (1991). Understanding Childhood Sexualities. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J082v20n01_14  where he gives a social constructionist account of childhood sexuality.

Interview with Ken Plummer in Paidika

In his review of Sarah Goode, Plummer felt safe to declare as late as 2010 that we live in “a moral panic over paedophilia”, but also that that such panic “shows no signs of abating any time soon.”

Relevant Trivia

Plummer's most unsympathetic comments relating to minor-attraction relate to his ostensible regret over his early (unspecified) publications, in a public apology posted on his blog in 2014. On his paedophilia research, Plummer wrote:

"These early papers from the 1970’s are of some historical interest, but given the changes in the wider world, I believe their conclusions are no longer tenable. I am saddened to think they might have been used to justify child abuse. [...] Given the upsetting nature of this material, I have now removed it from my web site. [...] I would never want any of my work to be used as a rationale for doing ‘bad things’ – and I regard all coercive, abusive, violent and exploitative sexuality as a ‘bad thing’."

In his apology, Plummer notably does not disavow his work on child sexuality, his book reviews addressing age-disparate eroticism, and his use of moral panic to frame the discussion of minor-attraction. He writes of his 1970's research into paedophiles that the "conclusions are no longer tenable”, implying he now believes relationships between MAPs and pre-pubescent minors are a "bad thing". Given Plummer's past statements and the fact he knew of research like Theo Sandfort's (1987), which examined positively experienced man-boy sexual relationships with self-identified paedophiles from the minor's perspective - with Plummer contributing in a book co-edited by Sandfort (1991 above) - we are doubtful this statement reflects Plummer's considered view on the topic. Plummer's statement may have been motivated by "changes in the wider world" (i.e. bigotry towards MAPs and AAMs), the lack of research similar to Sandfort's, and the fact that Plummer's university had "investigated this issue", concluding that his "academic work did not express support for pedophilia, and was conducted in a way that was consistent with the University’s Charter".

Newgon: We find it unsurprising that Plummer would have sympathy and empathy for MAPs during the 1970s and thereafter privately into the 2010s. Plummer had lived through the partial decriminalization of (adult) homosexuality, and his interview research involved meeting self-identified paedophiles and homosexuals during a time when both were unlawful and widely condemned. During the 1970s, Plummer would have met homosexual/gay MAPs such as author and PIE chairman [O'Carroll], who (according to O'Carroll), Plummer at least once hosted at his Essex home. Statements Plummer made about homosexuals in the 1970s, now more accurately describe the situation of lawful (stigmatized) and unlawful (taboo) age-disparate same-sex eroticism. In his first article "Awareness of Homosexuality" (1973), for example, Plummer begins with the following:

"In both England and America, homosexuality is a stigma symbol. To be called a homosexual is to be degraded, rendered as morally dubious, or treated as different. To be publicly known as a homosexual is to invite your employer to sack you, your parents to reject you, the law to imprison you, the doctor to cure you, the moralist to denounce you, the priest to pity you, the liberal to patronise you and the queer basher to kill you. [...] Given such costs it is little wonder that most homosexuals elect to conceal their identity from public gaze."

Plummer attributes his scholarship partly to what he saw as a "radical" university culture of the 1970s. In 2014, Plummer was quoted as saying that “all radical universities have been tamed” and that “sociology is now in crisis”. [...] Essex’s original interdisciplinary ideals have been watered down [...] “where university life is increasingly shaped by money, mass markets, measurement and managers”.

Plummer can be heard speaking on youtube, where he was interviewed in 2015 about such topics as the Kinsey institute, and how he self-censored his own interviews with paedophiles, sadomasochist, and other “sexual variations” which have never been published in full.. We have documented many similar cases of academic self-censorship.

Upon death, Essex University posted tributes to Plummer on its website.

All relevant publications

• Plummer, Ken. (1979). Images of Paedophilia. in M. Cook and G. Wilson, eds. Love and Attraction (Pergamon Press: London), pp. 537-540.

• Plummer. (1980). Self help groups for sexual minorities: The case of the Paedophile. in D.J. West, ed. Sex Offenders in the Criminal Justice System (Cambridge), pp. 6-19.

• Plummer. (1981). Paedophilia: Constructing a Sociological Baseline. in M. Cook and K. Howells ed. Adult Sexual Interest in Children (Academic Press), pp. 221-250. [Newgon: Reviews available research and argues for an assessment of MAPs free from prejudice and stereotyping].

• Plummer. (1981). The Paedophile’s Progress: A View From Below. in B. Taylor ed. Perspectives on Paedophilia (Batsford: London), pp. 113-132. [Newgon: Assessed early history of MAP organizing via PIE and the reactions it received].

• Plummer. (1991). Review of Brongersma, Loving Boys: A Multidiciplinary Study of Sexual Relations Between Adults and Minor Males (Volume 1, 1986). in Journal of Homosexuality, Volume 20, Issue 1-2, pp. 320-323.