Hmm - clutching at straws here? :-)
Submitted by Forgiven on August 19 2001 18:03:21
In reply to proud to be a pedophile! submitted by Nate on August 19 2001 17:08:20
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the word Pedophile appears to emerged into public consciousness as a result of the existance of the 'Paedophile Information Exchange', which is the British equivalent of NAMBLA. It is a sufficently modern word that it doesn't make it into my dictionary dated 1973. Of course the correct word is pederastry, which is originally Greek and turns up in English in 1609; this does indeed combine paedos for child and eros for sexualised love. But in practice modern English useage is to associate it purely with sexualised love, and it is no more regainable than the word 'Gay' is as a description of anything but homosexuality. Incidentally CS Lewis in his great book on the 4 Loves (the fourth is Storge) argues that Eros is far more complex in nature than simply selfish sexual love, so lets not go too far down this over simplistic distinction. |
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