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

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Well, there's this: https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/psychopathology-and-personality-traits-pedophiles

... so, the answer to your question would be that people with those desires are, in general, more diverse in their interests and motivations than the catch-all label pedophile would seem to suggest. Technically, a pedophile is someone who's sexually attracted to prepubescent children; that doesn't necessarily mean they're only attracted to prepubescent children. So, some of them may get off on seeing pre-teens all tarted up, while others prefer children who look more child-like and innocent.

[conuly]

Well, that's useful in a deeply unsatisfying way. Thanks.

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

All categorizations of human motivations tend to be deeply unsatisfying, even if useful.