Pedophilia - Orientation of Pathological Illness?

Lately there’s been a lot of flak from either side of this debate, and the reality is caught in between.    The Huffington Post’s articles as well as numerous Buzzfeed and Washington Post articles aren’t helping – they’re practically hands in your pockets over helping the poor “Minor Attracted Persons”.   YouTube the phrase “Minor Attracted Persons” or “MAPs” and see what’s going on.  Be prepared for nausea.   

The DSM IV TR (the last one before SJW nonsense began adding PC phrasing and line-blurring) defined pedophilia simply. 

So, three criteria for pedophilia (and hebephilia, ephebophilia, etc – don’t quibble with me, diaper snipers.)   

1.)  Over a period of at least 6 months, having recurrent, intense sexually arousing fantasies, sexual urges, or behaviors involving sexual activity with a prepubescent child or children (generally age 13 years or younger). 

2). The person has acted on these urges, or the sexual urges or fantasies cause marked distress or interpersonal difficulty.

3). The person is at least age 16 years old and at least 5 years older than the child or children involved. 

Please note under 2.) – acting on it, OR that the fantasies/urges cause distress or interpersonal difficulty.   As in, if you admit them, you would have problems with interpersonal relationships.   Or even if you didn’t – they would seriously interfere with relationships.  

So yeah – pedophilia in a nutshell.   Whether you did it (yet) or not – you have it, and it affects you, and will cause you problems.

The DSM V updated it – initially describing pedophilia (as well as hebephilia, and ephebophilia – seriously Pamper tampers, stop arguing) as a sexual orientation.   This initial printing of the DSM V was actually the origin of many of the arguments used today by MAPs.   

PLEASE don’t let that fool you – even the holier-than-thou DSM V committee updated it to drop the word “orientation” and admitted that it was incorrect.   They do NOT endorse being a toddler-fondler as a “sexual orientation”. 

The DSM V defines pedophilia with three qualifiers, and six specifiers (making it even more confusing than the IV TR – gee whiz, and only an extra several hundred dollars per mandatory book!)

A).  An individual who has had arousing fantasies about, urges for, or behaviors with a prepubescent child or children.  (no real change here, right?)

B). The individual has acted out these sexual desires, or is experiencing significant distress or difficulty as a result of these desires.   (wait a minute…something’s different here…)

C).  The Individual is 16 years of age, and at least five years older than the child or children noted in Criterion A.

Let’s skip the six specifiers – they’re filler.   They change diagnostic codes – my wife (the therapist) needs to worry about it.  This argument?  Pointless.

But look closely at B).   “Has acted out these desires, or is experiencing significant distress or difficulty”.   Where did the part about external relationships go?   Where did the part go that makes those without a care in the world about their child-touching still accountable for being a pedophile?

It went.   Gone.   Bye-bye.   Does that stop therapists from diagnosing pedophilia?   Of course not.  But it leaves that nice little loophole opening for the start of an argument.  Words are important folks. 

So where does the sexual orientation thing come in?

Here’s the thing – the argument CAN be made that pedophilia (and the others) ARE an orientation, not just an illness.   (They’re both, in my opinion – one doesn’t preclude the other.)

There are studies that go both ways (get it?  bisexual joke there…)  but the evidence remains that like sexual orientations which have been accepted under the DSM and similar manuals, pedophilia is also immutable.  

Meaning that there are no functional (PLEASE note that “functional”) therapies that can change it.   It’s a part of who you are, period.   Just like electro-shock and conversion therapy can’t stop you from being gay.  (The studies that say they do work skip the “functional” part I just mentioned.  They can stop you from being functional, but they can’t stop you from being functionally gay).  

There have been various techniques that show minor promise in alleviating the stress of being a pedophile and in minimally redirecting the attraction to minors.   But they don’t change the core of the condition. 

So.    Does that mean pedophilia is a sexual orientation?

Answer?   More study is needed.   Sorry.   It’s true.  

It’s still illegal, though.   And immoral.   And unethical.   And civilly indefensible.   And…etcetera.   While the HuffPo and the WaPo want to start their pro-MAP arguments with “shame helps no one!”, the rest of the argument falls apart.  

I’m actually going to agree with that one point.  Shame helps no one.   From drug addicts to pedophiles to domestic abusers – shame doesn’t help them.  Medically assisted treatment does.  Monitoring does.  Therapy does. 

On top of the WaPo and the HuffPo, MAPs tend to use the argument that being “gay” and being “trans” were both illegal, immoral, etc. once upon a time as well.   This one is the insidious one guys – this is the one that should piss you off.   They want under the rainbow flag, so that your decades of fighting will validate them.  

They do this because they want to include minor-attracted-persons under the rainbow umbrella and make their issue into a civil rights issue.

It isn’t.  

Civil rights are rights that are extended to everyone regardless of nature.    Pedophilia is doing something sexual to a child (or having un-treatable fantasies) with or without their consent.   It isn’t a right, it is HARMFUL, to at least one of the two partners (arguably both, as it also causes the condition to deepen for the older partner). 

PLEASE for the love of GOD, Jesus, Buddha and Gene Roddenberry – don’t let the diaper snipers get included under the rainbow.   I wore that rainbow for nearly two decades through Jr. High, High school, College and after – don’t let them edge their way in with the rest of us who fought for so long to get recognition.