Johannes Cornelis Christiaan "Joop" Wilhelmus (7 January 1943 – 9 September 1994) was a Dutch pornographer and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

, known for co-founding and publishing

pornographic magazine Pornographic magazines or erotic magazines, sometimes known as adult, sex or top-shelf magazines, are magazines that contain content of an explicitly sexual nature. Publications of this kind may contain images of attractive naked subjects, as is ...

''Chick'', founding and publishing

child pornography Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a chi ...

magazine ''Lolita'', and for

pedophile advocacy Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty a ...

Personal life

Wilhelmus received an upbringing based on radical left principles. He was a teacher and started his career by publishing Provo-like journals. Wilhelmus advocated complete sexual freedom, and became a well-known advocate of free sexual morality. Together with Peter Johannes Muller (of ''Candy'' magazine), Wilhelmus broke the

taboo A taboo or tabu is a social group's ban, prohibition, or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, sacred, or allowed only for certain persons.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

of sexuality in the Netherlands. Wilhelmus also aggressively attacked

women's shelter A women's shelter, also known as a women's refuge and battered women's shelter, is a place of temporary protection and support for women escaping domestic violence and intimate partner violence of all forms. The term is also frequently used to ...

s for abused women, and published the

confidential Confidentiality involves a set of rules or a promise usually executed through confidentiality agreements that limits the access or places restrictions on certain types of information. Legal confidentiality By law, lawyers are often required ...

addresses of these shelters. Wilhelmus started

sex shop A sex shop is a retailer that sells products related to adult sexual or erotic entertainment, such as sex toys, lingerie, pornography, and other related products. An early precursor of the modern sex shop was a chain of stores set up in th ...

s and a 'stimulus society' in a cellar in Utrecht that allowed couples to engage in partner swapping. Wilhelmus was married and had four children; three daughters and one son. Wilhelmus' wife shared his philosophy regarding adult and child sexuality.

''Chick''

''Chick'', self-styled "sex magazine for the worker", was an explicit sex journal that started in 1968. ''Chick'' was founded by Wilhelmus, its

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

, and Jan Wenderhold, its sales manager. It also published dating

personals A personal advertisement, sometimes called a contact ad, is a form of classified advertising in which a person seeks to find another person for friendship, romance, marriage, or sexual activity. In British English, it is commonly known as an adve ...

that were about sex and not about love. ''Chick''s initial print run of 5,000 rose to 18,000 by the second half of 1968, and according to Wilhelmus, the magazine's circulation was 140,000 in 1971. In the seventies, Wilhelmus argued in ''Chick'' that sex with children was part of the sexual liberation. In 1970, the publication of ''Chick'' resulted in the Dutch "Chick-arrest" by the

Supreme Court of the Netherlands The Supreme Court of the Netherlands ( nl, Hoge Raad der Nederlanden or simply ''Hoge Raad''), officially the High Council of the Netherlands, is the final court of appeal in civil, criminal and tax cases in the Netherlands, including Curaçao ...

, which in turn led to the new Dutch moral law of 1971 that no longer criminally sanctioned pornography. After a conflict between founders Wilhelmus and Wenderhold, two versions of ''Chick'' co-existed, ''Chick/Dordrecht'' and ''Chick/Amsterdam'', until Wenderhold eventually bought the Dordrecht version.

''Lolita''

Wilhelmus was also the founder and publisher of

magazine ''Lolita''. ''Lolita'' was first published circa 1970. Besides pornography it also featured a contact service for its readers through classified ads. Wilhelmus encouraged readers to provide new child pornography images so as to ensure his magazine's survival. A gift magazine was given in exchange for each new child photograph, and the sum of $350 was offered in the magazine if Wilhelmus could take the photographs himself. While Wilhelmus was arrested for publishing ''Lolita'' in January 1971, he was released immediately after the

interrogation Interrogation (also called questioning) is interviewing as commonly employed by law enforcement officers, military personnel, intelligence agencies, organized crime syndicates, and terrorist organizations with the goal of eliciting useful informa ...

, and was never prosecuted for publishing the magazine. In 1973, he gave a lecture at a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

training institute for working girls in Rotterdam, at the invitation of the school board, and Lex van Naerssen of

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

invited Wilhelmus as a

visiting scholar In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

, which led to parliamentary questions in the Dutch

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

. In June 1975, Wilhelmus partook in a TV broadcast of the

NCRV NCRV (Nederlandse Christelijke Radio Vereniging) (English: Dutch Christian Radio Association) was a public radio and television broadcaster in the Netherlands, mostly transmitting on NPO 1 and NPO 2. On 1 January 2014, NCRV merged with KRO to for ...

-program ''Hier en Nu'', where he explained how normal sex with children was to him. In 1986, the

PSI Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to: Alphabetic letters * Psi (Greek) (Ψ, ψ), the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet * Psi (Cyrillic) (Ѱ, ѱ), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek Arts and entertainment * "Psi" as an abbreviatio ...

subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs called ''Lolita'' "the most notorious of the foreign commercial child pornography publications". The magazine reached issue 55 in 1984, and was eventually closed down by Dutch authorities in 1987, seventeen years after its conception. According to Wilhelmus, at the peak of its popularity, ''Lolita''s circulation was 25,000. ''Lolita'' became an almost universal

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

name for child pornography. In an interview with the

VPRO The VPRO (stylized vpro; originally an acronym for , ) is a Dutch public broadcaster, which forms a part of the Dutch public broadcasting system. Founded in 1926 as a liberal Protestant broadcasting organization, it gradually became more ...

, Dik Brummel of the

NVSH The Dutch Society for Sexual Reform ( nl, Nederlandse Vereniging voor Seksuele Hervorming, NVSH) is a Dutch sexual advocacy organization. The NVSH was founded in 1946, as the successor of the Dutch Neo-Malthusian League, a birth control organisati ...

declared that he had bought some ''Lolita''s and considered them to be "historical documents".

Later years and death

Wilhelmus became a millionaire, but as "one of the most successful" and "one of the most notorious" publishers of child pornography, he ran into great opposition when the social climate started changing and he became more and more isolated. The Dutch authorities arrested him every time he tried to leave the country. In 1992, Wilhelmus was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for having sex with his then twelve-year-old daughter. Wilhelmus claimed to be innocent, and his oldest daughter started a petition to free her father and asked a doctor to examine the daughter who was supposedly abused. This doctor issued a

medical certificate A medical certificate or doctor's certificate is a written statement from a physician or another medically qualified health care provider which attests to the result of a medical examination of a patient. It can serve as a sick note ( UK: fit no ...

that stated the daughter could not have had sexual intercourse and that her

hymen The hymen is a thin piece of mucosal tissue that surrounds or partially covers the external vaginal opening. It forms part of the vulva, or external genitalia, and is similar in structure to the vagina. In children, a common appearance of the h ...

was intact. Two years later, Wilhelmus was released early because of good behavior. The night after his release, Wilhelmus drowned in the water of the Voorstraathaven in downtown Dordrecht. According to the police, his death was neither suicide nor murder, but Wilhelmus was drunk and his death an accident.

References

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