Basically what it says on the tin. Having read though some of the materials on the issue, I am baffled by how recklessly the word is used, given the consequences of such usage.
Pedophiles are the people with sexual attraction to prepubescent children. It doesn’t matter whether they do or don’t act on that attraction; in fact, many don’t. It is a sexual interest/mental condition that cannot be reliably changed.
Child molesters, on the other hand, are not necessarily pedophiles - in fact, 50 to 75% of child molesters do not have pedophilic interest.
Both facts can be sourced from the respective Wikipedia article and more info can be found in respective research.
Why does this matter?
Because the current use of the word reinforces stigma around pedophilia and makes it less likely for people with pedophilic disorder to reach out for help for the fear they would be outed and treated the same as actual child abusers.
This, in turn, makes those in a vulnerable position more likely to cross the line and get into the category of child abusers instead of coming for help. Also, it heavily affects people who did nothing to deserve such treatment.
What should we do?
We should leave the word “pedophile” to the context in which it belongs, which is the mental health and sexuality spheres, and avoid using the term to describe sexual offenders against minors. At the very least, one would most likely be wrong. At most, one would participate in the cycle of child abuse.
I mean… that’s the entire point of the post. You’re throwing everything under the same umbrella without seeing any nuance because you just want a bad guy to vilify.
The distinction between pedophilia, hebephilia, and ephebophilia is so one can understand why that attraction occurs and how to overcome it. If all you do is throw a book at someone and say “bad” you train them to hide it away instead of seeking help to fix it.
I don’t have the context of the deleted comment but no, that’s not really what I got from the post.
Pedophilia, in the literature, is typically used as an umbrella term used to refer to attraction to minors. Intanophillia is a thing too. Hebe, infanto, ephebe, etc all really boil down to an attraction to an age group.
This post is about the difference between attraction and molestation.
It can’t be overcome. It’s hardwired. That’s the whole fucking point.
One great about society today is that we can talk about mental health as real health. But when you get into these topics, it starts to break down. Suddenly now they are all criminals.
A good friend worked in a residential facility for people with troubled sexual issues. It’s just like any other mental health issue. Not every depressed person commits suicide. Not every schizophrenic does wild things in public. But once you broach the topic of pedophilies, nobody wants to admit that there are non-offenders who manage their mental illness out there