I read a post in one of the atheist/sceptic blogs I follow earlier, a post whose main thrust was to highlight the homophobic bigotry of yet another fundamental christianist. Not for the first time, the quoted claptrap included the conflation of homosexuality and paedophilia, which, quite rightly, the blogger decried. He went on, though, to enumerate the reasons he considered the two things to be distinct, which was when, I'm afraid, he raised my hackles, as well as displaying that his understanding of the issue of those who are attracted to individuals under the age of consent doesn't go much beyond the average tabloid hack. The phrase that particularly irritated me, and which prompted the thought in the title of this post, was 'paedophilia is the predation of children'. No, it bloody well isn't. Paedophilia is the attraction of an adult towards, to use the correct definition, a prepubescent child, although, of course, the word is (mis)used much more broadly to mean any permutation of relationship or attraction between an older and a younger person that the particular speaker/writer, or their society, disapproves of. Sexual predation, as far as I'm concerned, is the coercion, be it physical or emotional, of one individual by another to engage in sexual acts not of the victim's choosing, and is independent of considerations of age or gender. Why do so many people, even those, like the blogger in this instance, otherwise liberal and tolerant, seemingly find it such an intellectual challenge to distinguish between what a person is and what they do in this one specific area? I've said it before, and I'll say it again - what I am, and what I want, doesn't make me, and others like me, intrinsically evil. It's how you live your life, in all its aspects, that makes you a good or a bad person.
Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B
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