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Comments (9)

1. vincent Morton says:
   November 1, 2007 13:21

   I read your blog very often but have never responded before...mu desire is that you use the term pedophile correctly...sex with a teen is not a pedophile...
   thank you
   Vince

2. Bob Squalonero says:
   November 1, 2007 14:36

   Of course, I always thought that a "PEDO-phile" was a Mexican who loves to fart! ;-)

3. SarahK says:
   November 1, 2007 15:15

   Vincent, get over it. An old man having sex with a 13-year old or any minor is a pedophile, no matter how psychiatry defines it. The only people pushing the distinction between pedophile and ephebophile are those who think man-boy love is healthy. Here's what wikipedia says:

   "The term pedophile is also used colloquially to denote an adult who is sexually attracted to adolescents or youths below the local age of consent,[2] as well as those accused or convicted of child sexual abuse or child pornography related offences."

   "Legal definition of child
   The legal definition of "child" is interchangeable with minor and may vary by country, in keeping with cultural conceptions."
   

4. Russ Bianchi says:
   November 1, 2007 16:28

   First of all I would like to extend my heartfelt prayers to Orange County and all southern California residents harmed in any way by the recent arsoned fires.

   Secondly, I pray and hope law enforcement authorities are thoroughly investigating the possibility of arson related activity directly, or indirectly, related to delaying or obscuring legal proceedings against the Diocese of Orange, San Bernadino, San Diego & Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

   Thirdly, for daily vetted coverage on the ongoing global criminal cover up by the Roman Catholic miters and red hats, we recommend:

   www.bishop-accountability.org/abusetracker

   No Bishop Accountability? No Laity Monies!

   Respectfully submitted,

   Russ Bianchi
   Diocese of Monterey, CA, Lay Member

5. April says:
   November 2, 2007 10:13

   Actually, sex with a teen is defined as pederasty, not pedophilia (which involves pre-pubescent children), and I think most people would agree that there is a distinction in terms of degree of moral transgression (i.e., sex with a pre-adolescent child can never be consentual because people that age are not interested in sex). Lest we forget, for most of human history before the modern era, the traditional marriage age for girls was 14, and still is in many pre-industrial societies. Arellano himself defended pederasty in Mexican culture, where the age of consent is much lower than the U.S.

6. Gustavo Arellano says:
   November 2, 2007 11:10

   People: McGuire was a pedophile--unless you think a nine-year-old can consent. April: love how you're trying to throw me down the slippery slope! I didn't defend underage marriages in Mexican culture: I merely reported such inclinations. Not only that, get your definitions correct: pederasty is relations between a man and boy, something I never mentioned in my column. You're looking for another word, a word you'll have to find yourself.

7. April says:
   November 2, 2007 12:34

   Don't backpeddle, Mr. Arellano: your line "Gabachos like to use this phenomenon as proof of Mexican men’s inherent perversion, but what’s the bigger crime against nature, Confused Pocho: 20- or 30-some-year-old Mexican men lusting after a girl who just broke open her first box of tampons, or a Balboa Bay Club octogenarian leaning on his latest Corona del Mar High School graduate?" sounds like at least a mild defense, though maybe not a ringing endorsement. And such marriages are not considered "underage" in Mexican culture, which goes to show that standards of appropriateness with regard to child sexuality vary from culture to culture. Both "pedophilia" and "pederasty" referred originally to only homosexual relationships (the Greeks didn't have a term for "girl-love", but you can use "nymphophilia" or "nympherasty" if you want to split hairs) but in modern usage can refer to relations with both boys and girls.

8. Gustavo Arellano says:
   November 2, 2007 13:27

   I'm not backpedaling at all--unlike you, I posted the link to my column rather than make a blind assertion without offering readers context. And the only person splitting hairs is you: by definition, pedophile means anyone attracted to children, while pederast refers specifically to boys. I'm not making up the definitions. By the way, your etymology is screwy--look up the roots of "pedo" and "pede," for one--so no use in arguing about what words meant, as opposed to what they mean.

9. Harvey Pearson says:
   January 30, 2008 16:47

   The only reason Wikipedia, for your cited example, colloquially defines pedophilia so broadly is because they caved in to the constant, overbearing misuse of the development-specific, psychiatric term by so many of thosel folks, well, like yourself.
   If you ask me, a man who is sexually attracted to pre-pubertal boys should best, i.e., most accurately, be called a homosexual pedophile (or a pedophilic homosexual)---either way, of course, the homsexual "community" won't have any of that; a man so attracted to under the legal age of consent youth is a homosexual ephebophile (or ephebophilic homosexual) ;while a man who is sexually attracted to pre-pubertal girls is either a heterosexual pedophile, or a pedophilic heterosexual, etc.
   Yeah, I know there is one word that can, and often is, "colloquially" and/or "officially" used to contemptuously describe them all--one that begins with the letter "p"---and I don't mean, say, a "pedeasterist" (no "spell-check" viably available for that one), for just one such queen's english example.