AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Maybe, but from what I understand, the desire for sex far outweighs nearly every other human urge, including the one that calls for violent retaliation against your surroundings. Im sure there's a few people with pedophiliac desires who have a handle on it, I just dont think its nearly the amount you seem to. Especially since, and again, this is just from what Ive seen by observing normal people, being denied sex tends to breed a LOT of resentment and entitlement in people, and I can only imagine it gets even worse when its actively illegal to pursue your sexual desires.

It depends if people go by physical maturity or age. In Asia (and probably a lot of other places), there's porn of legal aged women who purposefully portray themselves as underage to appeal to the underage porn racket without there being scares of exploiting children. The fact that they're actually legal may or may not outweigh the fact that they are obviously protraying themselves as underaged, because to the viewer, they're an underaged girl and the acting thing is just a legal formality. The same principle would probably go for fictional characters. It doesn't matter to someone focused on the physical aspect if the ghost girl "has been around for centuries" (which would be just a distinction the writers would give) if she's physically underaged and used for fanservice.

It's kind of like that old adage that it's beneficial and "good" to go to strip clubs because the girls need the cheddar for college. It's kind of an excuse to absolve you of guilt for your actions, because "it's better that those girls get their cheddar for college" than the fact that you're paying them to expose themselves.

But, frankly, it all comes down to it being subjective.

Gonna tag this for rape and abuse up front, because I'm not simply making casual mention of the acts and the language is emotionally graphic by necessity.

My two cents amounts to this; like related fetishes such as schoolgirl and just-turned-18 fetishes, pedophilia (not merely happening to be attracted to someone young or seeing no problem with it such as in cultures that don't care that much, but the actual fetishization of being physically and sexually immature, not to mention mentally and emotionally) is a power and defilement fetish. For that matter, "cherry popping" and virgins fetishes are also primarily fueled by that, the desire to overpower or simply exercise power over someone too young, small, weak or inexperienced to measure up to the dominant party. It's no coincidence that schoolgirl manga and pornography is almost always also rape fetish pornography. In fact once you get into any one of the above kinks, you're almost definitely getting into all of them. A child cannot judge you, cannot strike back, knows no better and will accept anything done to them either out of inexperience or powerlessness; their innocence appeals because it opens the door to anything the acting party might want to do. An adult in full control of their mind and body might turn you down or shame your lack of prowess or body. A child has no choice but to accept it and assume, as they do for their parents and other powerful figures, that you are "perfect," because they have nothing else to judge by. Whether it's conscious or not, those are the urges being fulfilled and the fears being treated. This is why it is taboo, sometimes even more than other fetishes based on the same impulses. Although it's awful, at least the idea exists that perhaps an adult has a chance to fight back or recover to a greater extent than a child.

There's another issue as well; pedophilia is also legally taboo and it is one of the few gray-to-black areas within the letter of the law in terms of "freedom." Possessing or viewing cartoon pedophilia is illegal not just in the US but internationally-- this is why you often hear jokes about "no way, that shota/loli is "eighteen"?" in hentai manga and other adult or risque works; although the art can be bent to a degree to cater to those, well, tastes, at no point can a fictional or real work imply or state any participant, even a viewer, to be under 18 without violating the law. Many porn companies entirely disallow even vague allusions to the idea and forbid comments such as "no way honey you're eighteen," "I could be your father!" or "she looks so young." Just as many toe the line with 18 year olds in pastel colors and babyish clothing.

That's the disturbance, though. It's not just "innocence," it's what the innocence means-- weakness, helplessness, the need to be protected, and fragility, all of which are being targeted for damage, abuse and betrayal as an aspect of sexual gratification for a mature adult. Not merely "unawareness."

Ugh, virgin fetishists are kind of a league of their own too.

Especially since the ones that act on it attract girls to deflower them, and then ditch them because the thing that attracted them to them is no longer there. It's really all about "claiming" their virginity and adding it to your tally, and it's really disgusting to treat something like that as a game.

I mean, it doesn't even necessarily include rape (though the ones that do are extra horrible), but even the consentual ones are just really seedy (and often toe the legal age line).

Paedophilia is a mental illness/deficit with possibly very detrimental effects, and thus patients should receive extensive psychological treatment on diagnosis. Demonization and ostracization from society are contra-productive to treatment and thus should be avoided. Legal consequences to possible committed crimes should proceed as normal.

Can you explain specifically how it's a mental disease? "It's wrong to want to have sex with kids!" isn't a reason becase remember that homosexuality was deemed a mental illness for the exact same reasoning. I'm not trying to say "It's perfectly normal and healthy to find little kids attractive" I'm saying that calling it a mental illness is much. Everybody calls everything a mental illness. Can't sit still for 5 minutes? You have ADHD...You occasionally act "not like yourself" when in different social settings? You have DID...You're incredibly anal about how clean your house is? You have OCD...(fun fact: that one got so rediculous that they actually wrote in a new distinction for people who claim that. Now it's OCPD...)

It is a mental disorder for physical reasons, and not just social ones, right?

It's a mental disease/deficit/disorder because it's sexual behaviour differing from the norm. Nymphomania for instance, while a lot more socially acceptable than paedophilia, is still just as much a mental disorder.

Edit: Although yes, over-diagnosing mental disorders is a problem in current psychiatry. Personally I think a mental disorder should only be called as such if it negatively impacts the patient's life or others. However, one should also take into account that a condition might become worse if untreated, so in the case of conditions with potentially devastating consequences like paedophilia or psychopathy, it's safer to be on the prudent side.

Nymphomania also has studied physical characteristics to show that people who have the disorder have a different brain chemistry than those who don't have it. You can't deem something as a mental disorder just because it "differs from the norm." You remember homosexuality? That "differed from the norm" up until...well, now. It's just now getting the recognition it deserves as a perfectly healthy, natural thing. Back then, the "social norm" was that kids has sex, and were reproducing the second they could bear child, and homosexuals were executed for "deviant behavior." Psychology needs more than just a society driven, subjective definition to note what counts as a disorder and what doesn't.

It might also be that there are physical characteristics to paedophilia that we haven't discovered yet. In fact there most definitely are on some level if you adhere to a scientific worldview. Psychiatry can't let patients go untreated because neurology hasn't caught up yet.

Also since your post was made barely before my edit I feel I should point it out in case you missed it.

Oh I didn't see that. And that is the classical definition of a disorder, yes, which is why one of my earlier posts made mention of pedophilia only being socially possible by infringing on someone else's rights, though it would be more the guy's personality type to be willing to do something that infringes on someone else's rights more than the motivation to do so. Personally, if there was a way to study pedophilia more in depth, there's definitely no harm that can come of it. Homophobia was studied in depth, and it was actually discovered that there were some differences in brain structure. It's a study that has ultimately shut the door on the whole "Is it really a choice?" thing. Having a atudy on the human brain with respect to pedophilia could shed some light on the topic, but I'm aaid it might be too much of a hot button topic for anyone to be willing to really get behind it.

I mean hell...isn't there a series coming out about how controvertial the "study of sex" was when two doctors took it upon themselves to actually look into the physiology of sex in general? That's just sex...this is a social taboo...

I don't know about that, sexology is an acknowledged scientific field here.

I mean way back when. Now, it's a well studied field with lots of data and philosophical shenanigans. Back when these two doctors nwere trying to understand it, they recieved shit for being "perverts" and "studying dirty perverted things." It's another example of how society likes to change its mind on various social "norms."

are you seriously trying to defend pedophilia


like fucking seriously

Depends what you think this discussion is defending it from. Are we defending it in the sense that we think it's good? Not at all.

However, I made the case that even if someone has those particular urges, if they don't act on them then they are "guilty" of nothing and are not inherently bad people just because they have said urges.