Joop Wilhelmus

Joop Wilhelmus
Born (1943-01-07)January 7, 1943
Dordrecht
Died September 9, 1994(1994-09-09) (aged 51)
Dordrecht
Cause of death Drowning (accidental)
Occupation Pornographer, entrepreneur
Years active 1968–1987
Known for Chick, Lolita
Criminal charge Child sexual abuse (incest)
Criminal penalty Imprisonment for 4 years
Criminal status Convicted in 1992, released in 1994
Children Four

Joop Wilhelmus (7 January 1943[1] – c. 9 September 1994[2][3]) was a Dutch pornographer and entrepreneur, known for co-founding and publishing pornographic magazine Chick, founding and publishing child pornography magazine Lolita, and advocating sexual reform.

Personal life

Wilhelmus received an upbringing based on radical left principles.[4] He was a teacher[5] and started his career by publishing Provo-like journals.[6] Wilhelmus advocated complete sexual freedom,[7] and became a well-known advocate of free sexual morality.[2][8] Together with Peter Johannes Muller (of Candy magazine), Wilhelmus broke the taboo of sexuality in the Netherlands.[7] Wilhelmus also aggressively attacked women's shelters for abused women, and published the confidential addresses of these shelters.[9] Wilhelmus started sex shops[6] and a 'stimulus society' in a cellar in Utrecht that allowed couples to engage in partner swapping.[3] Wilhelmus was married[3] and had four children; three daughters[10] and one son.[11] Wilhelmus' wife shared his philosophy regarding adult and child sexuality.[12]

Chick

Chick, self-styled "sex magazine for the worker",[13] was an explicit sex journal that started in 1968.[6] Chick was founded by Wilhelmus, its editor-in-chief, and Jan Wenderhold, its sales manager.[4] It also published dating personals that were about sex and not about love.[5] Chick's initial print run of 5,000 rose to 18,000 by the second half of 1968,[6] and according to Wilhelmus, the magazine's circulation was 140,000 in 1971.[3] In the seventies, Wilhelmus argued in Chick that sex with children was part of the sexual liberation.[14] In 1970, the publication of Chick resulted in the Dutch "Chick-arrest" by the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, which in turn led to the new Dutch moral law of 1971 that no longer criminally sanctioned pornography.[15] After a conflict between founders Wilhelmus and Wenderhold, two versions of Chick co-existed, Chick/Dordrecht and Chick/Amsterdam,[4] until Wenderhold eventually bought the Dordrecht version.

Lolita

Wilhelmus was also the founder and publisher of child pornography magazine Lolita.[16][17][18][19] Lolita was first published circa 1970.a Besides pornography it also featured a contact service for its readers through classified ads.[20][16] Wilhelmus encouraged readers to provide new child pornography images so as to ensure his magazine's survival.[21][16] A gift magazine was given in exchange for each new child photograph,[20] and the sum of $350 was offered in the magazine if Wilhelmus could take the photographs himself.[16] While Wilhelmus was arrested for publishing Lolita in January 1971, he was released immediately after the interrogation,[17] and was never prosecuted for publishing the magazine.[17] In June 1975, Wilhelmus partook in a TV broadcast of the NCRV-program Hier en Nu, where he explained how normal sex with children was to him.[22] He also gave a lecture at a Roman Catholic training institute for working girls in Rotterdam, at the invitation of the school board,[23] and Lex van Naerssen of Utrecht University invited Wilhelmus as a visiting scholar, which led to parliamentary questions in the Dutch House of Representatives.[24] In 1986, the PSI subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs called Lolita "the most notorious of the foreign commercial child pornography publications".[20] The magazine reached issue 55 in 1984,[20][25] and was eventually closed down by Dutch authorities in 1987,[19][16] seventeen years after its conception.[25] According to Wilhelmus, at the peak of its popularity, Lolita's circulation was 25,000.[26] Lolita became an almost universal brand name for child pornography.[25][16] In an interview with the VPRO, Dik Brummel of the NVSH declared that he had bought some Lolita's and considered them to be "historical documents".[27]

Later years and death

Wilhelmus became a millionaire,[3][12] but as "one of the most successful"[21] and "one of the most notorious"[1] publishers of child pornography, he ran into great opposition when the social climate started changing and he became more and more isolated.[3] The Dutch authorities arrested him every time he tried to leave the country.[28] In 1992, Wilhelmus was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for having sex with his then twelve-year-old daughter.[22] Wilhelmus claimed to be innocent,[11] and his oldest daughter started a petition to free her father and asked a doctor to examine the daughter who was supposedly abused.[11] This doctor issued a medical certificate that stated the daughter could not have had sexual intercourse[10] and that her hymen was intact.[24] Two years later, Wilhelmus was released early because of good behavior.[3] The night after his release, Wilhelmus drowned in the water of the Voorstraathaven in downtown Dordrecht.[22][3] According to the police, his death was neither suicide nor murder, but Wilhelmus was drunk and his death an accident.[3]

See also

Notes

^a See the subsequent paragraphs. The magazine existed for 17 years and was closed down by authorities in 1987.

References

  1. 1 2 Itzin, Catherine (1992). Pornography: Women, Violence and Civil Liberties. Oxford University Press. p. 206. ISBN 978-0-19-825291-7.
  2. 1 2 "Joop Wilhelmus (51) overleden" [Joop Wilhelmus (51) Deceased]. NRC Handelsblad (in Dutch). 10 September 1994. Retrieved 21 December 2014. (Registration required (help)).
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Vermaat, Adri (14 September 1994). "Ex-pornokoning Joop Wilhelmus raakte steeds meer geïsoleerd tot het doek viel" [Former Porn King Joop Wilhelmus Became Increasingly Isolated Until the Curtain Fell]. Trouw (in Dutch). Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 Ophorst, Robbert; Schrijver, Marijn; De Vries, Roelof (2014). De lustfabriek. 50 jaar Nederlandse porno-industrie [The Lust Factory. 50 Year Dutch Porn Industry] (in Dutch). Business Contact. ISBN 9789047006862.
  5. 1 2 Van der Horst, Han (2013). De mooiste jaren van Nederland, 1950–2000 [The Best Years of the Netherlands, 1950–2000] (in Dutch). Prometheus Bert Bakker. p. 106. ISBN 9789035140233.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Lindner, Christoph; Hussey, Andrew, eds. (2013). Paris-Amsterdam Underground. Essays on Cultural Resistance, Subversion, and Diversion. Amsterdam University Press. p. 55. ISBN 9789089645050.
  7. 1 2 Aarts, Milco (26 May 2001). "Pornokoning wil taboe op seks" [Porn King Wants Taboo on Seks]. De Telegraaf (in Dutch). Amsterdam. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  8. ↑ "Dordrecht, oudste stad van Holland" [Dordrecht, Oldest City of Holland] (in Dutch). RTV Rijnmond. 1 June 2011. Archived from the original on 21 March 2015. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  9. ↑ Pollmann, Tessel (26 January 1980). "'Wij zijn nu op straat niet meer dan een lijf met een gat'; over agressie en de grenzen van de vrije menningsuiting" ['On the Streets We Are Now Nothing More than a Body with a Hole'; About Aggression and the Limits of Free Speech]. Vrij Nederland (in Dutch).
  10. 1 2 "De dubieuze zaak Joop W." [The dubious case Joop W.]. Nieuwmens (in Dutch). NVSH. 17. Summer 1993.
  11. 1 2 3 Wilhelmus, Joop (October 1993). Dik Brummel, Yvonne van Santen, W. Smith (Editors). "Brief vanuit de gevangenis" [Letter from prison]. Nieuwmens (in Dutch). NVSH. 17.
  12. 1 2 John Lindsay and Laurence Barnett (Directors) (1973). The Porn Brokers (Documentary). Elmside Films.
  13. ↑ Thompson, Dave (2007). Black and White and Blue: Adult Cinema from the Victorian Age to the VCR. ECW Press. p. 227. ISBN 978-1-55022-791-8.
  14. ↑ Van der List, Gerry (20 November 2007). "Seks: de lasten van de lust" [Sex: The Burden of Lust] (in Dutch). Elsevier. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  15. ↑ Dutch Senate (2 July 1985). "Dutch Senate referencing the Chick-arrest" (in Dutch). Staten-Generaal Digitaal. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Howitt, Dennis; Sheldon, Kerry (2007). Sex Offenders and the Internet. John Wiley & Sons. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-470-02800-1.
  17. 1 2 3 Beetstra, Tjalling (2009). Van kwaad tot erger. De sociale constructie van satanisch ritueel misbruik in de Verenigde Staten en Nederland [From Bad to Worse. The Social Construction of Satanic Ritual Abuse in the United States and the Netherlands] (Thesis) (in Dutch). Datawyse/Universitaire Pers Maastricht.
  18. ↑ Van der Ploeg, Jan; De Groot, Roel, eds. (2010). "6.4 Is pedoseksualiteit schadelijk?" [6.4 Is Pedosexuality Harmful?]. Kindermishandeling: een complex probleem [Child Abuse: A Complex Problem] (in Dutch). Antwerpen: Garant. p. 110. ISBN 9789044125771.
  19. 1 2 Tate, Tim (1990). Child Pornography: An Investigation. Methuen Publishing. p. 60. ISBN 978-0-413-61540-4.
  20. 1 2 3 4 "XII. Quality and Content of Foreign Child Pornography". Child Pornography and Pedophillia (PDF) (Report). Washington, D.C.: Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs. 9 October 1986. pp. 42–43. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  21. 1 2 Penn, Michael; Nardos, Rahel (2003). Overcoming violence against women and girls. The International Campaign to Eradicate a Worldwide Problem. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 59–60. ISBN 978-0-7425-2499-6.
  22. 1 2 3 Lörzing, Han (2014). Jaren van verandering. Nederland tussen 1945 en 2014 [Years of Change. The Netherlands between 1945 and 2014] (in Dutch). Athenaeum – Polak & Van Gennep. p. 180. ISBN 9789025304737.
  23. ↑ "De zaak Wilhelmus, deel één" [The Case Wilhelmus, Part One]. Sekstant (in Dutch). NVSH (10). October 1973.
  24. 1 2 Eikelenboom, Siem (2012). "De eenzame dood van Chick-uitgever Joop Wilhemus" [The Lonely Death of Chick Publisher Joop Wilhemus]. Koud bloed (in Dutch). Nieuw Amsterdam (17).
  25. 1 2 3 O'Donnell, Ian; Milner, Claire (2011) [2007]. Child Pornography. Crime, computers and society (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 7. ISBN 978-1-84392-357-2.
  26. ↑ De Ruijter, F.G. (15 December 1984). "Seksbaron J. Wilhelmus: Amerika grootste producent kinderporno" [Sex Baron J. Wilhelmus: America Is the Greatest Producer of Child Pornography]. NRC Handelsblad (in Dutch).
  27. ↑ Brummel, Dik (7 October 1996). "Stenen des Aanstoots". VPRO (Interview). Interviewed by Sarah Verroen. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  28. ↑ Volkman, Ernest; Rosenberg, Howard (2 June 1985). "Shame of the Nation". Family Weekly. TimesDaily. p. 6. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
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