What does a typical pedophile look like? People brought up on mass media think about a lonely old man staring at someone's kids in a park, or a rich man paying for an underage victim of sex trafficking. And these people exist, we periodically hear about them. But we don't hear about something more important: not all of them are pedophiles, and a lot of pedophiles don't look like this.
Before talking about what a typical pedophile look like, we need to establish what pedophilia is and who it can affect. Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia ) wrongfully defines pedophilia as a synonym pedophilic disorder, but also makes a lot of solid points:
“In popular usage, the word pedophilia is often applied to any sexual interest in children or the act of child sexual abuse.[1][2][7] This use conflates the sexual attraction to prepubescent children with the act of child sexual abuse and fails to distinguish between attraction to prepubescent and pubescent or post-pubescent minors.[8][9] Researchers recommend that these imprecise uses be avoided, because although some people who commit child sexual abuse are pedophiles,[7][10] child sexual abuse offenders are not pedophiles unless they have a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children,[8][11][12] and some pedophiles do not molest children.[13]”
“Pedophilia emerges before or during puberty, and is stable over time.[28] It is self-discovered, not chosen.[7] For these reasons, pedophilia has been described as a disorder of sexual preference, phenomenologically similar to a heterosexual or homosexual sexual orientation.[28]”
These statements can be supported by more credible sources:
https://www.dutchrapporteur.nl/Publications/OnsolidgroundTacklingsexualviolenceagainstchildrenintheNetherlands/index.aspx
http://summit.sfu.ca/item/13798
https://www.b4uact.org/research/survey-results/youth-suicidality-and-seeking-care/
A pedophile can be of any age, any gender, any social group. My experience of talking to many pedophiles and other maps also confirm that. I've met 13 year old girls who were maps, 17 year old nonbinary people, middle aged married women, and old men too. They were rich and poor, conservative and communist, pro life and pro choice, Christian, Muslim, Agnostic, Atheist, and many more. Kyoshi, a person whose radiant presence very much defined Tumblr community a year ago, was a 18 year old nonbinary POC. Mells, a person whose influence on map community is very controversial, started blogging when she was just 15.
When I'm asked to picture a typical pedophile, I vaguely see someone young and hopeful for the future. There are also pedophiles who don't fit my expectations. And none of them are less important and less worthy of accurate representation in media.
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