So it begins
Alrighty then. After moping about my horrible week, I decided to do some reading. After all, it’s a much needed distraction given all the drama that’s going on in my life at the moment.
My novel, Nemesis, deals with a lot of themes. One of them is sexual abuse. I am sorry if the topic bothers you, and normally I do not bother with trigger warnings, but I will for right now, because people I respect actually need them (and not the silly special snowflakes that think they’ve been sexually assaulted simply because some fat burly dude whistled at them — NO, that is not sexual assault). The main character endures both physical and sexual abuse while in captivity, and the subject of pedophiles versus ephebophiles comes up.
Which brings me to this op-ed I read in the New York Times, – a revolting rag of a newspaper. I don’t read it often, but I was poking around r/The_Donald and saw this op-ed. It is called “Pedophilia: A Disorder, Not a Crime“. Yeah, tell that to the victims of pedophiles. Go ahead and read it (it is hosted at archive.is, so that you don’t have to deal with their “you can only read a few articles for free per month” thing, and so that they don’t get any traffic). I don’t even want to quote the author’s words. They’re revolting.
The only thing I could possibly agree with is that yes, we need to find a way to deal with pedophiles that haven’t actually acted out their desires. I still do not buy that they cannot help themselves, but if someone is honest enough to admit that they have these feelings, we should be able to “fix” this person before they actually act out.
But consider the arguments in the op-ed. Consider the language and rhetoric about these so-called “virtuous pedophiles” – sound familiar? I bet it does. Oh, they live in fear of losing their jobs, etc. Oh, they’re afraid they’ll be shunned by society. I won’t say any more, though. I think you understand what I mean anyway.
The author concludes her op-ed by insisting that this will actually help prevent kids from being molested, and that it won’t be easier for pedophiles to plead insanity, etc. But that’s not the point. The point is that opinion pieces like this (and the one that appeared on Salon’s website not too long ago) are designed to ease pedophilia into the mainstream by drumming up sympathy for them. State that it’s something they cannot help – in this case, it’s a mental disorder – and then generate some crocodile tears by lamenting how difficult the lives of these poor widdle souls are, but reassure people that the pedos won’t get away with harming anyone.
Of course, all they need is the sympathy. Making it okay for pedophiles to act out their sick desires will come later, once they’ve convinced society that pedophiles need to be protected from “hateful bigots” or something.
They said the slippery slope didn’t exist. They said that anyone that dared to even mention the slippery slope was a hateful bigot, and yet, here we are, still merrily sliding down the Slippery Slope of Doom.
It’s not like I’m advocating violence against anyone, because I am not. I am not advocating discrimination against anyone, nor am I advocating for the “removal” of their “rights.” I’m just pointing out the obvious, is all. The key difference with pedophiles and the kind of ephebophiles that like screwing underage teens is that these people truly hurt children. I can live with all the rest of it, but allowing pedophilia to be mainstreamed? No, that’s where I draw the line. I refuse to live in a world where diddling little kids is okay. It isn’t, no matter how badly these “virtuous pedophiles” feel about their sick sexual desires.