I said basically this on the other post about this, but when I look at the characters presented here, not a single one looks “like a child” to me. And I don’t mean “it looks like pedophilia is morally right”, what I mean is that these characters don’t have the traits children have. At least in my eyes.
They don’t look any more like a human child than Kermit the frog does, or Miss Piggy. They’re empty abstractions of people, and we breathe a spirit into them when we project things onto them, and I don’t project “fourteen-year-oldness” onto any of these shapes. Because I’m not into that, maybe?
So, like, even if the plot for these characters states that they’re 14, it certainly doesn’t seem that way. I don’t bring that in with me.
I only recognize like one or two of these characters, so I don’t know what age range is meant to be represented here, I just heard someone else say one of them was 14.
I’ve never actually heard anyone say were attracted to a character like shinobu from monogatari. The only times this discussion has ever come up from what I know is when a character is canonically underage but drawn to look like an adult like rias from dxd.
I have absolutely 100% seen the “she’s a 1000 year old witch coincidentally drawn as a child” unironically in many nsfw forums. Like it’s not hard to find, there is evidence of it on Reddit even let alone sites dedicated to the subject or with worse moderation policies.
It’s out there. Denying it’s existence just reveals your own ignorance on the subject.
Speaking as someone who was sexually assaulted as a minor, I would rather people rub themselves off to fictional characters than have it happen to anyone else.
You cannot stop people from being attracted to minors. Making something illegal doesn’t magically remove feelings, nor does it magically prevent people from doing it. The threat of prison has never stopped prisoners.
If people are attracted to fictional minors, let them be honest about it so that parents can keep children away from them. The more the attraction to fictional minors is stigmatized, the less people will openly declare it and the less likely they will seek help.
the threat of prison has never stopped prisoners.
Hardcore History has a great episode about public capital punishment throughout history, and how it has not deterred criminals at all.
Predators are opportunists, they don’t abuse children with an expectation to be caught. I don’t expect an opportunist to announce themselves as capable of deceit before committing a crime, so I don’t think permitting them to be honest with others is something they’d want to do.
Even with the most charitable perspective, people would still view virtuous pedophiles as live grenades.
Consider if someone said “I have a rape kink, I’d never act on it, so I’d still like to be invited to [insert event where people might stray from the group, or drink so much they pass out.]”
The only real answer is to remove the stigma around existing, so they can get professional help. Which is hard when “kill pedophiles” is seen as a socially acceptable reaction to news articles about child abuse (my point is that pedophiles aren’t inherently criminals).
Very sorry for what happened to you. A great line I heard once was “it’s not the child, it’s the abuse”, and that really helped me understand the problem better. I think the goal of a lot of people when hearing about CSA is to try and take children out of society as a whole (eg: don’t have them represented in media), and that’s the “solution”, but really children deserve to be in society, they deserve a say, they deserve to be taken seriously. In fact, trying to erase children as a whole is what gives abusers their power, and really it’s about the power difference which enables abuse.
You cannot stop people from being attracted to minors. Making something illegal doesn’t magically remove feelings, nor does it magically prevent people from doing it. The threat of prison has never stopped prisoners.
Some of these are even more defiant on social media, openly being “me gusta” (as in the meme).
With their full names. And family pictures.
I am not 100% sure if this approach would have the intended effect, but the stigma around paedophilia doesn’t help at all with actually protecting children.
It should be in everyone’s interests to find reliable solutions to these problems. Sexual attraction isn’t something one can freely choose, or turn off at will. I imagine it must be difficult to deal with sexuality that is potentially hurtful towards unconsenting parties without any guidance.
So here’s the thing, someone who’s a thousand years old mentally would be quite intimidating, sexually, regardless of what they’re like physically. The thing about a lot of fictional “thousand year old” characters is that they still act like children, more or less.
There was a bit in Aeon Flux (or was it Ghost in the Shell?) where some kid (>16) was hitting on her, and she was like “oh you want to have sex? Sure let’s see what you’ve got” and the kid just like shits his pants. I think they end up having sex but in the aftermath it’s clear the kid was not in control.
So IMO you had a realistic “physically 9 but mentally 1000 year old” I think most pedos would not be into that.
(and not just for comments this time)
How come we almost never see the opposite. A character who looks 58 but is actually 12. Like Benjamin Button.
Morally wrong AND sexually unappealing*, I can’t imagine why it doesn’t exist
spoiler
- for common preferences don’t @ me
Tom Hanks’ character in Big?
Howl’s Moving Castle?
Would you crucify me if I said I only watched two Ghibli films?
Yes!
Was one of them porco rosso? If so, you can live
Spirited Away and Kiki’s Delivery Service.
No crucifixion necessary, I’d just tell you that it’s worth watching more of them. They’re all very well made, and well made art is worth experiencing from time to time.
The only exception I have for that is for Earwig and the Witch. It’s by no means a bad film, but I was underwhelmed by it. From an animation standpoint, it was still pretty good, but it kinda shows that “we’re doing our first ever 3D animated movie” kinda vibe. Especially with scenes like the worms punishment scenes with so few worms, making it feel like an underwhelming punishment.
Again, I imagine the people behind it put in so much effort, and I really do appreciate it, but it isn’t a Ghibli film for me.
Kes in voyager was like that. We saw her ‘old’ once and she was like 12
deleted by creator
Mental illness
A mental illness is by definition the suffering caused by a condition, not the cause or the symptom itself.
Pedophiles are not inherently ill, but they may be if they suffer from the frustrations they feel.
If you’re going to be a perv, the least you can do is keep that shit to yourself.
You wouldn’t be the first person to have a freak fetish in a room full of people who all agree “Freak Fetish is bad!” that just nodded and smiled and kept their fucking mouths shut.
Exactly, I don’t think people can deny or change what they’re attracted to. God knows they’ve tried that with gay men.
But of course the big difference here is that here these people can’t ever be allowed to act on it. They need to reserve the furthest and darkest place in their mind, build walls around it like they’re building a nuclear bunker and seal off all the exits. And don’t fucking tempt that shit with loli anime or other weird shit.
I don’t think people can deny or change what they’re attracted to.
I’m not even going that deep on it. I just think policing what people are attracted to (for whatever reason) is a fool’s errand. At the same time, advertising what you’re attracted to invites public criticism.
They need to reserve the furthest and darkest place in their mind, build walls around it like they’re building nuclear bunker and seal off all the exits.
Not even that. They just don’t need to throw on sandwich boards and parade around anime conventions with bullhorns insisting they have some god-given right to fuck the art.
I guess that was a bit of a hyperbole, but you get what I mean :)
I think nazuna (the greyscale one on the right) is neither visually nor technically a minor. However she is actually the pedophile in this case because she is a vampire going after a literal teenage boy.
That makes them an ephebophile then. Pedo/paedophilia is younger than adolescence (ie. Single digit ages)
Thanks for proving that informing someone about the distinction of pedophilia/ephebophilia makes you sound like a pedofile
Shit, I better tell my middle-aged wife then!
found the pedo
There’s no better way of protecting your family against a certain minority of the population than learning about them. Be victimised, or be aware. Personally, I prefer to do some basic reading.
I can understand thinking shows with questionable content are good. Some really great shows have some straight up weird content.
Though if you’re justifying sexualizing under aged shaped characters… just … no. There’s a reason everyone (rightfully) shat on Netflix’ Cuties, and that was even trying to call it bad.
Cuties was about real human girls for actors, not fictional characters. And that’s not to say that people shouldn’t give weird anime side eye, but like these are literally two different things. One is based on morals and the other should literally send you to jail.
I recently ran into someone who DM’d me asking to please remove all veiled accusations of them being a pedophile or any comments about the age of a 29 year old animie girl.
(I never even accused anyone of anything)
This character looks like a 9 year old, based on her perceived height alone she’d for sure not be in High School yet.
But yea sure, she’s 29, only looks 9??
Uh. Isn’t Rei Ayanami (2nd from the top, blue hair) visually 14 but canonically like four years old during the events of the original Evangelion series? Somehow that’s not even the most fucked up part about what happens to basically everybody throughout the story, either.
She’s a 40 something 4 year old in a 14 year old body.
Shit is weird and it’s no wonder Hideaki Anno crashed out about the fans being so fucking creepy about the girls
Did that actually happen?
I mean, good if it did, but having watched the show, the creator strikes me as one of those same people who’d be fucking creepy about girls.
I don’t care what you say, Becca’s got my heart (Cyberpunk 2077: Edgerunners).
I’m not crying, you’re crying.
One of the most shocking things in Japan that I learned was that… age is hard to guess. Talked to some lady and I thought she was in her early 20’s, nope she was older than me.
Becca was older than the main character, but she chose the Loli aesthetic. A lot of people gave the shiwrunners shit for it too.
Isn’t she 21 anyway. I’ve legit seen girls with her same build who are like 27.
edgerunners II, are you ready?
No.
too bad, lets go :3
Oh, I’m gonna watch it. I’m just not ready for the inevitable trauma.
Huh. I mean the front and center one is male and 20 years old and not sexualized? (Kija from Yona of the Dawn)
But I agree with the whole of the post.
