Elinda wrote:
gbaji wrote:
The pedant in me feels the need to point out that the correct term is ephebophile. Pet peeve of mine is people using strong words incorrectly, thus putting more weight on the instance of use at hand, but over time, weakening the actual word being used. The ubiquitous use of "racist" and "racism" to describe things that are neither is another example of this.
The distinction only matters to those trying to downplay the illegality and/or immorality (a pet peeve of mine).
How can it be downplaying to use a term correctly instead of incorrectly? It's about applying the correct amount of weight to something, rather than exaggerating it by using an incorrect term in the first place.
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Your vast knowledge of various forms of rape on minors is kind of disturbing.
It's not about "various forms of rape". I get that there's a need to create some kind of emotional reaction here, but the terms we're talking about are not crimes, but psychological conditions (which can, of course, lead to criminal behavior). There is no such thing as being "arrested for or charged with pedophila". That's not the name of any crime on any book. That term (as well as ephebopilia) refer to the psychological conditions of attraction to either pre-pubescent children or post_pubuscent (but pre-majority) teens. That's it.
And yes, from both a psychological and legal perspective, there is an absolutely vast difference between the two. I would hope you would want us as a society to make a distinction between people who are attracted to 5 year olds versus being attracted to 15 year olds (especially if they act on that attraction). Arguing that it's somehow "downplaying" someone's sexual actions towards a teen minor by pointing out that it's not the same as having sexual activity with a pre-pubescent child is absurd and weakens the actual horrific act of actual child molestation. Again, this is not downplaying the crime of statutory rape (or the actual much worse crime of sex trafficking in this specific case) to say that it's *not* pedophilia.
It is exactly what it is. Any attempt to label it otherwise is false. We should oppose things, be angry about them, seek justice for them, etc, based on what those things actually are and not because we're reacting emotionally to a misused term. Right?