Question about pedophila, prompted by the furor over Cuties

[conuly]

So you know how people are all talking about this movie and the messages, marketing, and/or filming thereof.

Several people known to me have expressed the opinion that showing children, tweens, or teens doing things which adults know look "sexual" is clearly something "designed to appeal to pedophiles".

But what I want to know is - is it? Obviously everybody is different, even people who are sexually attracted to children, but is it the case that people with those desires are, in general, more interested in this sort of scene than pictures of kids acting less overtly "sexual"?

I don't even know how to find this out without ending up on some sort of watch list or, worse, seeing things I actually don't want to see.

Note: this is a separate question from "are those scenes appropriate in this, or any movie" and "whether or not they'd be appropriate in some movies, are they appropriate when acted out by actual children" and anything of that sort. Those are all good questions which people are arguing strenuously over everywhere.

Comments

[kaffy_r]

But what I want to know is - is it?

Others have spoken more articulately and at greater length, so I'll simply say that, from my perspective, it isn't.

Sexual abusers of pre-pubescent children are, I think after reading some articles about and by* them over the years, appear to want and be turned on by visuals of children acting as children and not aged and/or sexed up.

Abusers of young people between the ages of 11 and whatever-your-particular-age-of-consent is where the abuse is happening seem to be doing the power trip thing. That can be simply the desire to hold power over a young person, where the sexual abuse is primarily a tool to keep the young person tied to and afraid of the abuser. Or it can be becoming sexually aroused by that power. In neither case does the age of the abused seem to play a primary part, although it can play a secondary part. (Of course the power/sexual arousal thing can collide in ways that muddy the water.)

*I specifically recall a column in, I believe, the Guardian. The anonymous writer showed a staggering level of self-loathing as they spoke about what they do to avoid children and materials that might arouse them. Pedophiles who make the decision not to act on their urges to exist, and I feel for them.