GirlChat #455376

Start A New Topic!  Submit SRF  Thread Index  Date Index  

Re: Healthline's article on pedophilia--feedback?

Posted by Dante on Wednesday, November 12 2008 at 7:12:05PM
In reply to Healthline's article on pedophilia--feedback? posted by Iron Marxist on Wednesday, November 12 2008 at 11:26:45AM

I'm game...

Definition;

The whole notion of paraphilia is being challenged on the grounds that it implies that a sexual response to someone or something is a deviation from a proposed norm. While still couched in terms of optimal health and the facilitation of healthy human relationships, this norm still hasn't lost its historical link to procreation and "traditional" family structures ( read property transfer.)

As the rest of the mental health field no longer backs the notion that sex can be reduced to procreative sex within the confines of matrimony, they are looking at definitions wherein proof of harm is required, and where harmful behaviors are treated as separate and distinct from the situation within which they emerge. For a situation to be regarded as unhealthy one must demonstrate an inevitable link to harm for every permutation, or address the harm separately.

The historic model of "homophilia" demonstrates the problems with the concept of paraphilia.

Note also the assumption that pedophilia produces "urges;" and that acting on them makes one a Pedophile. This demonstrates an ignorance of the recognition of the situational offender within the field of law enforcement.

Firstly, while the APA definition of the paraphilia requires that someone must have acted on their attraction within the last six months, nothing is mentioned about criminal actions. There is no necessary link between the APA's definition of Pedophile and the Law Enforcement notion of Sex Offender.

Many of those who act out demonstrate a lack of Pedophile attraction and do so as a result of aggressive disorders, boundary control issues or conditions which diminish self-control.

By blurring the grounds between those who are attracted to children and are non-violent and those whose violent acts have nothing to do with a sexual response to children, we guarantee misdiagnosis, mistreatment, and an inability to clearly study pedophilia within the population.

Further, such misdiagnosis leads to stereotypes which may make the "heterosexual" population ill-equipped to react to such an attraction when they experience it. The belief that attraction is an urge, and the demographic link to a population of those who have "acted out" in a criminal manner may lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy wherein those who demonstrate a very common attraction within the population begin to question their self-control.

This concept of attraction leading to uncontrollable urge has historically been linked to misogyny and blaming the object of attraction. Far from preventing rape, such a blurring has been used to excuse rape, which is why the concept of "urge" has been removed from all other discussions of basic sexual attraction, and why such urges are seen as a mental illness regardless of context.

....

and that's just the definition.

Dante

Dante





Follow ups:

Post a response :

Nickname Password
E-mail (optional)
Subject







Link URL (optional)
Link Title (optional)

Add your sigpic?