Good luck trying to get people to use words correctly.
P-do gets thrown around in everything involving a minor with an adult, regardless of ages or motivation.
Most of the time when people are freaking out about pedofilia, what they’re really meaning is ephebopholia.
They may think the distinction doesn't matter, but those are 2 completely different interests.
One is attracted to pre-pubescent children and the other likes teens. There’s a difference between being attracted to a 5 year old and a 15 year old.
Oth are still fucked up what the fuck?????
Yeah, I see people unfairly criticising stories all the time an unreasonably calling authors pedophiles, while the actual stories that include romantic and sexual relationship between a child and an adult get defended. It’s all messed up
Well said, it's important. Understanding the meaning means we respect the weight of what these words carry.
I think I also feel similarly regarding conflating grooming with any sort of relationship where there's a significant age gap. For example, a character who's 19/20 in a relationship with someone who's 35+. Not entirely conventional or the vibe? Sure. Possibility for power imbalance, yeah. But grooming, no?! These are two consenting adults.
Exactly like wtf is going on here...
Pedos in bl manga are especially normalized because a lot of weird authors think LGBTQ folks are more prone to being pedos, it think that disgusting. I only read up to 8 chapters because i couldn’t get myself to read the rest. I think it’s weird that Marlon suggested that he gets a sex partner for a 12 year old boy. The reason he gave for assigning a sex partner is weird too. Sexual assault can’t be canceled out by more sex, the kid needs therapy. The fact that he’s so open about his sex life. Like, six does not need to know that you need sex to fall asleep. He also lets six watch him have sex with a women. Also, six has already been groomed by the circus leader, so when an adult shows him kindness and is always making suggestive remarks. I wouldn’t be surprised if six thinks that’s love. It is not, marlon is also not afraid to use his power as an adult and as a rich man to oppress six into behaving. In the last 8 chapters he tries to physically intimidate him at least two times.
Marlon's behaviour is inappropriate but he’s not a pedophile, he’s not attracted to Six when he’s a child, he just has a different set of beliefs influenced by his environment and time period. Moreover, authors don’t include pedophiles in the story because they think gay people are pedophiles, some authors themselves are pedophiles and create stories to satisfy their urges. It’s not ok, but this is not that case.
Everyone's trying a bit too hard to defend Marlon
Some people in these comments really need to educate themselves on some basic terminology. Pedophilia, grooming, and inappropriate behavior are not the same things, and you should not treat them like they are the same things.
You can actually find examples of all three in this story in case you aren't clear about the distinctions.
The "clients" of the circus? Pedophilia.
The ringleader? Grooming.
Marlon? Inappropriate behavior.
Stop trying to conflate the terms or expand their use to areas where they don't apply. All that does is hurt real victims by diluting the terms' meanings and the discourses where they should be used.
At the same time, it makes it easier for people with certain agendas to take those words and paint them on top of marginalized groups they'd like to legislate out of public existence.
I may be taking this more seriously than I should be, but I'm annoyed. At a time when an increasing number of people are calling everyone in the LGBTQ+ community pedos and groomers, there are also an increasing number of people doing the same to LGBTQ+ characters and the authors who write them, even when they don't actually fit those terms.
If you don't like what a story is doing or feel uncomfortable with something that happened in it, that's fine. But please, do better with how you criticize it.