SoFarAway

My definition of a pedophile as it pertains to me is the same as it pertains to anyone. I understand "pedophile" to simply mean an adult who is sexually attracted to children. Recall the footnote in my initial posting.

Hmm.. Well' date=' in my early teens, I'd say my attraction was a bit obsessive. I gradually outgrew that, though, by the age of 16 or so. Now, I'm 20 and my attraction to boys is a less controlling part of my life. But don't get me wrong; it is still a significant part. Not sure what you mean on the magnetic compulsion thing. Concerning the feeling of attraction I have though, I'd say it's fairly similar to the feeling of attraction a heterosexual man feels toward a woman. In addition to the attraction, I feel a desire to fulfill something of an older brother or father type role for boys (and to a somewhat-lesser degree, children in general). I feel a yearning to protect and mentor them. Interesting question. Even in my earliest memories, I recall holding a certain fascination with boys. This brings to mind an incident that occured in my kindergarten class (at the age of 5 or 6). While our teacher was out of the room, my classmates and I were discussing same-sex marriage (we didn't know it was taboo at the time). I remember proclaiming to the class that I was going to marry a particular boy that I liked. Anyway though, I'd say yes, I've always been drawn to boys. Well' date=' up until this post, I hadn't really shared any experiences. But my motivation in posting here is to get people thinking, open people's minds a bit, and help non-pedophiles understand pedophiles better. No, not really. I'll take it you mean pedophile-related thoughts, which does cover a broad scope of things. It's hard to say. I guess about 10%, but that's just a rough figure off the top of my head.

No worries. Certainly not. Is that what you think I said in my post? If so, please reread it. How do you judge any person? Get to know the person and ascertain his/her individual character. Same applies to a pedophile. I'm glad that you acknowledge that. I interpret "the last one" to mean the type that acts out of malice and/or lacks sound judgement, or something along those lines. If that is the case then I agree; a careless or bad-intentioned pedophile or other person may harm a child. Don't you think understanding is a logical step in solving a problem? Do you still disagree with the reasoning set forth in my first post? If so, I'd still like to know what line of reasoning leads you to disagree. Do you think the stigma placed on pedophiles benefits humanity? Let me try to clarify a bit. I think it would be beneficial to society as a whole if pedophiles were not so strongly stigmatized. Again, this does not mean a change in AoC laws, or that harming children be accepted. Nor does it mean that all pedophiles should be viewed as harmless, outstanding citizens. I think, though, that society should make an effort to better understand pedophiles and remove the generally unconditional hatred surrounding them. This would reduce the isolation they feel and lessen the psychological stress and damage they experience. The number of psychologically unbalanced people attracted to children would go down, and thus the number of sexual attacks against children would decrease. I still welcome arguments from anyone who disagrees. When you first meet someone do you discard the person as ilk since you don't know whether or not he/she is a good person?

Thanks for the welcome and for replying to my post. Okay. Can you please give me a synopsis of how you interpreted my previous post? Also, what thought process led you to discard my words? Yes. Certainly. And if the hatred was removed, there would likely be more and more "non-practicing" pedophiles.

This is quite a long thread, and I see some constructive discussion has taken place. But some of the discussion appears to be unobjective, unproductive, and/or spurred by personal offense. This is an important issue, and discussing it in a sensible manner has great potential for good. So please, take a few deep breaths and some time to think before replying. Now, I think we can all agree that pedophiles tend to be isolated/stigmatized, emotionally, socially, etc. Hatred for pedophiles seems to be almost universal. (I think a discussion on the reasons for this would be interesting, but this is probably not the proper time for that.) Also, can we not agree that this isolation, especially when experienced for long time periods as in the pedophile's case, is almost certainly psychologically damaging? Would this ostracization and resulting psychological damage not encourage the pedophile to deviate more and more from society and become embittered toward it? I think the previous two questions can logically be answered in the affirmative.* I think many pedophiles are estranged from society and thus more likely to act out in reckless, hurtful ways. Before anyone misinterprets this, let me clarify that I am arguing in this paragraph that the stigmatization of pedophiles has ill effects and am in no way excusing the actions of those who harm children. Okay, now let's envision a society in which pedophilia** was a normal, accepted inclination. Let's imagine that pedophiles were not stigmatized and that they could be totally open about who/what they were. I am not talking about a change in AoC laws or anything like that here, merely a change in society's attitude. This environment would be much more amicable to pedophiles and thus far less encouraging of harmful deviance. Because of this, I think that children would be much safer. So, I contend that the de-stigmatization of pedophiles would be beneficial and that such an atmosphere would be better than the current state of things. I realize my argument is very much philosophical, and I am content with that as I think the reasoning can stand alone. I hope the readers will carefully consider my words, and I look forward to objective replies. (I realize this isn't entirely new ground for this thread. It's just something I'd like to see receive some focused discussion.) *This seems intuitive to me, but if anyone disagrees, I'm willing to elaborate on my reasoning. **When I use the word "pedophile" or one of its variants, I am referring to an attraction, not necessarily a behavior.