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Megyn Kelly suggests Epstein wasn't an 'actual pedophile' if victims went through puberty
(www.rawstory.com)
this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2025
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Holy shit they're actually doing the hebophile bit
Yeah, but it's impossible to explain without sounding like a pedophile....
Life imitates art as one of our favorite Gianmarco shorts comes to life
TIL hebophile and ephebophile, two words I didn’t want to know existed.
It is a useful distinction when considering possible rehabilitation. In general conversation it's just weird.
The best explanation I have seen was that it's like death metal sure there's varying types and styles within death metal but at the end of the day the only ones who really care about those distinctions are death metal fans.
(My apology to any death metal fan offended by the comparison)
All sub categories of reprehensible creep
I don't think a 20 year old dating a 17 year old falls into that category but it would fall under the legal definition you're referring to in many states. That's the problem with drawing arbitrary lines, you usually end up labeling some things incorrectly. That doesn't mean you get rid of the line but understanding the context is still important.
That being said, there is no amount of context that will lessen the creepiness of a 50+ year old man serially preying upon 15 year old girls. That's disgusting and I find Megyn Kelly's invocation of this defense to be indefensible. She should be ashamed of herself if she were capable of feeling shame.
Yeah of course a 20 year old dating a 17 year old is fine....we all know this isn't what they are talking about....it's disgusting people trying to justify someone old enough to be their parent or grandparent..
Maryland has a system in place to protect teenagers...the age of consent is 16 (which if you're over 21, shame on you) but there's a 4 year sliding clause, so for example if your 17, a pissed parent cannot charge you for having relations with their 14 year old, if all was on the up and up.
I'm in my 40s and anyone under 30 is too young.
Being sexually attracted to 17 year old females makes someone a reprehensible creep?
Most straight men probably fit into that.
Especially when the age of consent in half the states of the US is 16.
I mean it's kind of important to be more mindful about the choice of words in general as many people say pedophile but mean child predator.
There are many people born with that attraction to kids that never act on it or even actively seek help.
The whole "let's call everyone a pedophile" is doing more harm than good as it creates a huge stigma preventing people from looking for help.
That said: they are 100% not caring about that at all and just moving the goalpost...
I do 100% agree that the concept of having hugely varied terms for pedophile, and say the term Minor attracted person, and get really sick of hearing people lash out on when the term MAP is used to say "You just want to protect pedophiles".
No I want people who have the urge to abuse children, to get treatement and never act on it and live peaceful happy lives where they never harm an innocent person, and to me that is far better of an outcome than a child being abused, but supposedly it gets made up for by the abuser getting tortured in prison.
I don't know. Can't we just stigmatize it to the point where their only recourse is to turn to faith and try to live a life of celibacy and denial? They can all become priests or something. That'll help them with the internalized guilt while they're at it!
uncomfortable catholic church tugs on its collar
I don't think priests go celibate. What you're suggesting would likely result in a lot of child molestation
I'm sure god wouldn't let that happen. Let's just give it a try for a few hundred years.
Perhaps it's a personal failing but I generally don't care why somebody doesn't abuse minors, I only really care that they don't abuse minors.
If the person has never acted on it, then there isn't really anyway to know and he wouldn't be labeled with it.
I guess we could be more accepting of people that just download pictures, but downloading those pictures is acting on it, and shows that they have trouble controlling it.
I get your point, and that it isn't always their fault, but the link between both words seems very justified imo.
Except that people who have not acted on it and are seeking support in continuing to not act on it are afraid of identifying themselves as pedophiles because the association, even amongst mental health professionals, is with the action and not the thoughts.
Ya, that's a fair point.
I've never heard the word hebophile and I bet a lot of people haven't either. Sometimes when unfamiliar words are introduced as part of a story or event, they become a central part of that story and forever linked to it. Maybe people should use it more regarding trump.
I really wish I lived in a world where psychiatrists could spend time inventing terms for people who prefer rogue-likes versus people who prefer rogue-lites instead of this shit.
I learned about hebophilia yesterday and today I started wondering if I'm supposed to be pronouncing ephebophilia as "ep-hebophilia" or was i right saying "ef-ebophilia"