"saying it doesn't matter whether or not he's a pedophile or an ephebophile is not the same as saying harassment is the same as rape"- But it is, because you left out a crucial piece of information here. In EVERY definition of pedophilia you'll find, it specifies "prepubescent children". Pedophilia is aimed SPECIFICALLY at prepubescent children. Ages 13- refers to the fact that, generally speaking, puberty hasn't started yet at that age range. Pedophilia is a SPECIFIC thing, targeting an age range. Rape is a SPECIFIC thing involving SPECIFICALLY forced penetration. Both are SPECIFIC things with people trying to include things in them. Involving ephebophilia in pedophilia makes no sense as ephebophilia 1. Isn't classified as a mental disorder like pedophilia. And 2. Is targeted at ages 15-19, well after puberty has started.
"why is someone a pedophile? We don't know"- Yes we do... Pedophilia is targeted at a specific age range, meaning, if your affection is targeted at children within that age range then you're a pedophile. You're creating myths yourself. Your problem is that you left out the age range, literally the most important part.
I hope everybody sees that youraedthiswrogn misunderstood what I wrote again. I don't see the point in explaining what I wrote to them again because doesn't matter how often I do it they seem to be incapable of understanding my posts (like how they confuse the cause of pedophilia with the definition). Besides I already told them that I didn't want to have a discussion with them and they blocked me anyway so I really don't understand why they still try to talk to me whenever they can.
Should anybody else have problems with understanding what I wrote I'll happily answer every question they have. English isn't my mother tongue so it's possible that some of the things I wrote are hard to understand.
I didn't "misunderstand" anything. You left out the age range because you want to make the argument that anyone older hitting on a minor isn't pedophilia.
I didn't "misunderstand" anything. You left out the age range because you want to make the argument that anyone older hitting on a minor is** pedophilia.
Also, you keep mentioning that i blocked you, but you can still respond fine. It's useless information unless you're trying to defame me with it. Is that it?
with pedophilies and ephebophilies they can both be classified as someone who is sexually attracted to a MINOR... whether theyre 8 or 15 you should not be having any sexual attraction to anyones who is not an adult. the fact that the author included how struck seunghee was by realizing the gravity of the situation, emphasizes just how wrong it really is, no matter whether the age group.
That isn't the point. Yes, both are bad, one is worse and despite what people want to believe, words are important. Especially important words that don't need watered down like pedophilia.
That's true and I agree that the author wants us to dislike him. Another user, Yurricane, wrote a pretty good analysis about his character a few days ago http://www.mangago.zone/home/mangatopic/3658689/
That's basically how I see him as well.
And that's also why think that when we talk about this story we should separate being attracted to children from being attracted to under-aged teenagers because it would've been written differently if he had been an actual pedophile.
E.g. Blondie can be way more open about his preference than a pedophile. His friend might stop him when he goes too far but the chatrooms he uses to prey on lonely minors aren't illegal and actually quite normal.
He can also be a lot more subtle when it comes to manipulating his targets.
Besides, I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be that many people feeling sorry for him if he targeted children instead of teenagers. And that's important because in my opinion blondie is supposed to show us that a predator is still a predator even when he looks and acts pitiful.
However, I can understand why people are getting tired of hearing about the difference between pedophilia and ephebophila. Everybody who's brought up the difference between them did it (at least at some point) to defend the blonde guy and not because the difference is actually important to them. Even the person who first brought it up, admitted that they had to google it. So basically nobody here knew the difference between them until they could use it to defend a character and now they're complaining about the people who only know the word pedophile like they were any different a few days ago.
We all know that people only use the word pedophile because "Ephebophilia" is not part of their vocabulary. Let's stop acting like we don't know what they actually mean.
I don't like talking about pedophilia on the internet but I feel like it's time to talk about it seeing how nobody seems to understand the psychological aspect of it or the laws concerning pedophilia and know only the definition of it.
Is pedophilia a crime?
No, it's not. Pedophilia is a sexual preference. You don't commit a crime by simply having it (although I don't know the law of every single country in the world).
When does a pedophile commit a crime?
It's illegal to have sex with children because (as far as we know) children can't give consent. Therefor having sex with a child is automatically rape. This means that even when an adult manages to manipulate a child into thinking that they want it, it's still rape and a crime.
You should also keep in mind that children have no sex-drive (as far as we know) which is another reason why having sex with children shouldn't be allowed.
(I'm not gonna talk about classifying and owning child pornography because it's too hard to explain and not important right now.)
Is it a mental disorder/mental illness and why?
Yes, it is. A mental disorder is, to put it simply, something that influences they way you think, feel etc. in a way that affects your everyday life so dramatically that it causes serious problems for you. Being attracted to children means never being able to have sex, watch porn etc. without committing a crime and that's a serious problem.
That's why ephebophilia doesn't have to be one. In the USA for example the age of consent can be somewhere between 16-18 (or even lower) which means that it would be legal for a 40-year-old to have sex with a 16-year-old (as long as they have sex in states where this is legal). The 40-year-old doesn't have any significant problems because of it and therefor doesn't suffer from a mental illness.
Why is someone a pedophile?
I can't really answer that because we don't know yet. Actually, there's barely anything that can be said about human sexuality with certainty.
However, that doesn't mean that every pedophile is the same and a lost cause anyway. There are ways to help them (e.g.the country I live in has a nationwide program that teaches them how to live without committing a crime). Most of them don't like being a pedophile, are fully aware that having sex with children is wrong and suffer because of it but they can't ask for help because it would ruin their lives to be a known pedophile. Some even go as far as to chemically castrate themselves to kill their sex-drive.
Of course, there are also people who have this kind of preference because of something that happened to them and then it can be "healed".
However, those kind of people are only easier to treat on paper because there's one big problem: In order to help someone they have to acknowledge the problem and be willing to receive help.
In my opinion, a sexual predator who continuously harasses people and doesn't stop because he sees nothing wrong with it is a bigger threat to society than a pedophile who doesn't want to be one because he knows how wrong having sex with children is and seeks help.
And to write at least a few sentences about the webcomic:
That's why I despise blondie so much. He hasn't changed at all. He still sees nothing wrong with his behavior and he still has no interest in adults. I don't care how nice he sometimes acts. I want to see true regret, a true change of heart. I want him to realize what he did. And no, simply starting a relationship with his adult friend wouldn't be enough.
I didn't drop this story because it didn't treat the predator like most other BL stories. The last thing I want to see right now is the typical "I was healed by having a relationship" nonsense.
One last thing: Saying it doesn't matter whether he's a pedophile or an ephebophilia is not the same as saying harassment is the same as rape.
Because the first one is not a crime while the latter one is. It's more like saying a psychopath is the same as a sociopath.