Heretic TOC

Not the dominant narrative

‘Age gap’ angst: Left must choose or lose

177 Comments / By /

It is no accident that today’s guest blog by “Prue”, who needs no introduction to time-served heretics here, includes a goodly sprinkling of links to excellent Newgon pages, of which they have been a prolific creator. There are many other links too, in their well referenced and challenging (especially to the Left) analytical essay.      When MAPs Go Mainstream: Why Phillip Schofield Apologised after Doing Nothing Wrong A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of paedophilia. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre. Where is the party in opposition that […]

‘Age gap’ angst: Left must choose or lose Read More »

Paradise turns to hell for Dutch duo

358 Comments / By /

Hard to believe I am writing this, but two of my friends have been tortured. In the UK when we talk about getting “hammered” it is just colourful way of saying “drunk”.  But for Dutch nationals Marthijn Uittenbogaard and his partner Lesley it is no mere figure of speech. They are reliably reported to have been “tortured” (non-specific) and battered with hammers (all too horrifically specific) in an attack by thugs in a prison in Ecuador. Those who have been around Heretic TOC for a while will be aware that Marthijn and Lesley have featured here a few times before. Anyone

Paradise turns to hell for Dutch duo Read More »

C4’s Andy show: Nailed it? Or failed it?

188 Comments / By /

Heretics will be pleased to learn that today’s guest blog makes not a single mention of Prince Harry. We have heard quite enough about his frost-bitten todger, thank you very much, and his presumably much hotter teenage (but legal) sexual debut with “an older woman”, to say nothing of all his entitled whinging. But this will not be a royalty-free zone because there is the important matter of Harry’s even more controversial Uncle Andrew to discuss. “Prue”, well known as an erudite commentator here and creator of superb Newgon pages, takes up the challenge below in their second guest blog. Billed

C4’s Andy show: Nailed it? Or failed it? Read More »

After ten years, time to take the chair

235 Comments / By /

Old soldiers never die, Never die, never die, Old soldiers never die, They just fade away. The earliest version of this song is said to date back to the First World War. I don’t go back that far, but at 77 I am getting on a bit, and after Heretic TOC arrived at its 10th anniversary earlier this week, the time has come to take a serious look at what the future holds. Mercifully, I feel in remarkably good nick for my age, both physically and mentally. So, who knows, I might go on fading so slowly you’d hardly notice for

After ten years, time to take the chair Read More »

Jacob and Karl deserve our support

76 Comments / By /

Outgoing British prime minister Liz Truss made mistakes so gigantic they could be seen from America, even by sleepy old Joe Biden, whose eyes barely open wide enough to read his autocue. We might think those who are smart enough to claw their way to the top in politics would also have the wit to avoid moves that with 20:20 hindsight were always bound to see them tripping over their shoe laces. But we would be wrong, wouldn’t we? We all put our foot in it sometimes. So I’m not going to put the boot in too hard over the mess

Jacob and Karl deserve our support Read More »

Friends with benefits for youth

129 Comments / By /

Friendship needs no marketing campaign. Its benefits are obvious. How about “friends with benefits”? We probably have in mind an adult scenario: sex without a committed relationship between friends who trust each other not to foul up anyone’s marriage, or whatever. Not just a hook-up: more caring and personal. Sounds good, albeit not a MAP thing. Or is it? Actually, it is massively an intergenerational phenomenon. It is just that we haven’t been talking in these terms. We can begin to now, though, thanks to the fascinating findings of an overlooked research paper dug up and posted recently in the comments

Friends with benefits for youth Read More »

Sex education is no choking matter

89 Comments / By /

Choking is big, apparently. Until recently, to me as an oldie it mainly just meant extreme danger when food gets stuck in your windpipe and you could be dead within minutes if the airway stays blocked. It still has that primary meaning, of course, and the idea that anyone would simulate such a thing deliberately, for sexual excitement, strikes me as utterly insane in the most basic root meaning of that word: from Latin insanus, from in– “not” + sanus “healthy”. Choosing to put yourself at risk of immediate death is most definitely not conducive to good health, right? And as

Sex education is no choking matter Read More »

Naïve idealists, not cynical hangers on

108 Comments / By /

It is not every day a prestigious, scholarly book mentions Heretic TOC and names its humble host literally scores of times, but a recent tome from publishers Palgrave Macmillan, yours for a princely £89.99, does just that, so it might be thought worth shouting about. Well, yes, but the title is Sexual Violence Against Children in Britain Since 1965: Trailing Abuse, so you will not be surprised to hear that the kind of noisiness called for is not so much a triumphant fanfare as an agonised scream of protest. The book, by Nicholas Basannavar, who has taught history at Birkbeck, University

Naïve idealists, not cynical hangers on Read More »

Let’s be clear about prepubertal orgasm

100 Comments / By /

The word “orgasm” has been around for centuries. Personally, I prefer the wonderfully evocative phrase “the voluptuous acme”, as coined by Albert Moll, the great pioneering German sexologist whose 1912 book The Sexual Life of the Child still has much to tell us. Like his eminent rival Sigmund Freud, Moll was in no doubt that children do indeed have a sexual life, from infancy onwards. In more recent times, though, while lip service is still paid to this view, it is being downplayed in scholarship. The recent Cambridge Handbook of Sexual Development: Childhood and Adolescence, for instance, focuses on the adolescent

Let’s be clear about prepubertal orgasm Read More »

MAPs are queer but are we in here?

86 Comments / By /

What are we to make of the Queer Britain museum, which opened a couple of weeks ago in London? How inclusive, especially, is its presentation of queerness? Is there any space for MAPs? Housed in a quietly elegant conversion at Granary Square, King’s Cross, the building suggests up-market office space rather than anything daring. Going by what director Joseph Galliano has reportedly said, and by the website, the inside is no more outré than the exterior. The focus is to be “on celebrating queer accomplishments” rather than “the tragic parts”, such as AIDS or, one would think, the unresolved tragedies of

MAPs are queer but are we in here? Read More »

Scroll to Top