State University of New York, also known as SUNY Fredonia recently had an incident with one of their professors. Stephen Kershnar, a “Distinguished Teaching Professor” according to their website was heavily criticized online for his views on pedophilia. Kershnar has been teaching at SUNY Fredonia for 23 years and according to New York Post, has written over 100 articles and book chapters on topics ranging from pornography to torture.
???????????? Professor says an adult wanting to have sex with a kid is accepted as being wrong but “it’s not obvious to me that it is in fact wrong” pic.twitter.com/ygC5nuHDNa
— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) February 2, 2022
Professor’s Remarks
Stephen Kershnar, who teaches libertarian philosophy and applied ethics at SUNY Fredonia has recently gone viral due to his unusual take on adult-child sex. Kershnar, in the video uploaded by @libsoftiktok, said that “Imagine that an adult male wants to have sex with a 12-year-old girl. Imagine that she’s a willing participant.”
He goes on to say, “A very standard, very widely held view is that there’s something deeply wrong about this — and it’s the wrong independent of it being criminalized”. Furthermore, he also said the following in the video, “It’s not obvious to me that it’s in fact wrong. I think this is a mistake. And I think exploring why it’s a mistake will tell us not only things about adult/sex and statutory rape and also fundamental principles of morality.”
The Backlash
Due to the remarks made by the professor in the bizarre video, there seems to be a strong backlash by netizens and also by SUNY Fredonia itself.
SUNY Fredonia had the following to say for the matter on Twitter.
A message from SUNY Fredonia President Stephen H. Kolison pic.twitter.com/EDZCHCE7ch
— SUNY Fredonia (@FredoniaU) February 2, 2022
SUNY Fredonia claimed that the views of the professor were “reprehensbile” and did not represent their values in any way, shape or form. They also claim to be reviewing the controversial matter. The original video posted by @libsoftiktok on Twitter has garnered 966.6k views as of writing this article.
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