Pedophiles, the actual definition?
Petco
Join Date: 2003-07-27 Member: 18478Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2003-07-27 Member: 18478Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">Is the term too widely used on everything?</div><b>A few things to note about this topic:</b> This is not a topic debating about child molesters/abusers/rapists but about how the term pedophile is being used.
Other things to note: Not all child abusers are pedophiles. There may be (bad)"pedophiles" who try to lure children to have sex with them, but there are those who do not want to harm children in anyway.
I came across this <removed link> on the definition of a pedophile and pedophiles behaviors and other things. The things on that site sounds plausible about a true "child lover" and it does give you an idea that the term pedophiles is used too broadly such as child molesters and so on.
So do you think it is unfair that those people are always marked as the "bad guy" because of the way pedophile is broadly used for anything such as a child rapist?
Edit - Old topic but I just wanted to answer my own question - The problem with a relationship between an adult and a young child is that the child usually (well depends on age and the person of course) hasn't reached the maturity yet to really know what's going on or what they should or need to do and/or the consequences of their actions.
Other things to note: Not all child abusers are pedophiles. There may be (bad)"pedophiles" who try to lure children to have sex with them, but there are those who do not want to harm children in anyway.
I came across this <removed link> on the definition of a pedophile and pedophiles behaviors and other things. The things on that site sounds plausible about a true "child lover" and it does give you an idea that the term pedophiles is used too broadly such as child molesters and so on.
So do you think it is unfair that those people are always marked as the "bad guy" because of the way pedophile is broadly used for anything such as a child rapist?
Edit - Old topic but I just wanted to answer my own question - The problem with a relationship between an adult and a young child is that the child usually (well depends on age and the person of course) hasn't reached the maturity yet to really know what's going on or what they should or need to do and/or the consequences of their actions.
Comments
A parent loves his childern, an uncle loves his nephews, it isn't impossible for an adult to love a child, but that form of love does not make that adult a pedophile. pedophilia is specific to those people seeking a sexual relationship, not someone who just loves children in the platonic sense.
In latin the sub-word we use, 'philia' refers specifically to romantic love. It doesn't encompass the platonic meanings of the english word "love" which individually encompasses many feelings, romanticism, respect, platonic affection. It would be a mis-definition to call a person who loves children in a purely platonic way a pedophile.
The surely the opposite is true of that. A romantic love for someone doesn't necessarily meant hat they want to have sex with them. Quite often, the true meaning of the "-philia" suffix is misunderstood, as a want to have sex. This isn't the case, as your definition is of the latin is right on the mark.
However, the term "paedophile" (or pedophile, for the Americans in the audience), doesn't come from the latin, is comes from the Greek.
<!--QuoteBegin-Wikipedia's page on Pedophilia+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Wikipedia's page on Pedophilia)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->The word comes from the Greek paidophilia (παιδοφιλία)—pais (παις, "child") and philia (φιλία, "love, friendship"). Paidophilia was coined by Greek poets either as a substitute for "paiderastia" (pederasty), or vice versa.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Obviously from this definition, we derive the literal translation of "Child Love", or "Child Friendship". The actual term for being sexually attracted to pre-pubscent children is "Paedophilia erotica", meaning a "sexual love of children".
The reason why this term is not used in the mainstream, is because of the sigmatism attached to the word "erotica".
Erotica is used in the media as to depict something of an adult nature, either films or pictures. Even the ###### industry itself uses the term. For this reason, the media prefers to use the contraction to "Paedophile", as to look technical, yet to dumb down the desciption of what they are actually referring to. By using the sole term paedophile, thye are then defining the person as someone who merely loves, or wants to be friends with, under legal age of consent children, or specifically, pre-pubscent children.
Personally, I don't believe that it is the media's fault themselves (and by the media, I refer to pretty much all newspapers, television, radio, and websites), again, due to the association of the word "erotica" with published, or uploaded works of an adult nature. But, they could at least attempt to make the correct association.
I don't know who started the association of "paedophile" to someone with a sexual attraction to children, but they are pretty much responsible for tarring an entire group with a brush which people (rightly) hate.
All sex with children is rape. They are neither mature enough to give consent nor physically ready to support a sexual relationship, not to mention the psychological consequences and shattering of innocence...
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I hate that statement considering 100 years ago "children" as they are now classed were having full on sexual relationships and getting married at the ages of 12-14 at a minimum. Society has changed, not the psychology within the mind of children.
As far as innocence goes some children are very sheltered others are not. You sound like an only child.
I hate that statement considering 100 years ago "children" as they are now classed were having full on sexual relationships and getting married at the ages of 12-14 at a minimum. Society has changed, not the psychology within the mind of children.
As far as innocence goes some children are very sheltered others are not. You sound like an only child.
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Physical maturity doesn't mean that somebody possesses enough judgment to make potentially life-changing decisions. It might be natural, biologically speaking, for people to be getting pregnant once they reach sexual maturity, but natural isn't always ethical.
Anyways, I do think there is a bit of a grey area - it's pretty dumb to think once somebody reaches their 18th birthday they are magically an adult. I do dislike people using the term when referring to people under the age of consent but not a child (I had a friend call somebody else a pedophile for looking at a high school senior who was not lacking in physical development). But I think a 18 year old shouldn't be taking advantage of an impressionable, easily manipulated 14 year old.
It has been debated for ages whether <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Carroll" target="_blank">Lewis Carroll</a> was a pedophile or just loved kids.
as an aside, I started dating my fiance when she was 15 and I was 18, the results of which I think was technically illegal <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/confused-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="???" border="0" alt="confused-fix.gif" />