I wish the law and the conventional wisdom would not blur the distinction between pedophilia (paedophilia) and the sexual abuse of a pubescent or postpubescent minor.

As a psychiatric disorder (the kind of "illness" that supposedly nobody ever gets cured of), pedophilia refers to sexual attraction to (and/or activity with) prepubescent children. This kind of sexual attraction IS an aberration.

While ACTING on sexual attraction to a pubescent or postbubescent adolescent IS and SHOULD BE against the law (especially if there is a large age gap betweent the two parties), ATTRACTION TO adolescents who have reached sexual maturity (or at least appear to have reached it), is NOT a psychological disorder. If it is, the VAST majority of males worldwide suffer from it!

When the law and society's attitudes lump a lot of attitudes and behaviors together that don't really represent the same underlying condition, I do not think it helps us deal with the situation constructively.

I don't know the specifics of the charges against Townshend, Kelly, etc., but I wonder (because the law blurs the important disctinctions) sometimes what is meant when the media use terms like "young boy" or "young girl" -- 8-year-olds or 15-year-olds? If we were to arrest everyone who liked to look at sexually provocative pictures of models who LOOK like they're 15 or 16, or of 12-year-olds who LOOK like they're 18 or 19, boy, would our jails be full!

BTW, Walrus
That incident of the guy being harrassed and vandalised for being a "paeditrician" would be hilarious if it weren't, sadly, true. Reminds me of the time someone was sued for calling (IIRC) Ronald Reagan a "heterosexual."

Genie