Posted: May 21, 2016 9:17 am
I had a professor once who mentioned a study claiming that a large amount (maybe 80%, I'm not sure) of men would have sex with a 12-year-old girl if there was no social stigma behind it. The prof was teaching some minor course on the side and I only visited that one lecture, so I have no idea about his credentials. I couldn't find that study though and didn't want to search to hard. Might sound paranoid, but I don't want to end up on some watch list, by excessively googleing pedophilia.
Anyway, whether it is true or not, it got me to think. Marrying underage girls seemed to be the norm in many societies throughout history and sex was pretty much implied. In catholic societies marriage had even to be consummated by sex. It seems that sex with minors is also rather common in many tribal societies, but to be honest I don't really know a lot about that besides hearsay. We stigmatize somebody who has these urges to be a pervert or much worse, but is the interest in a minor actually a perversion or do most people just convince themselves they have no interest because of the social repercussions. I've heard from many people who grew up thinking gay sex is disgusting only to later in life find out they are bisexual. Could the same thing be happening here? Why else would it have been common in the past and considered a perversion today? Or do I just have my history wrong?
So what does the science say? Are we repressing our natural instincts because of social stigma and are actually biologically inclined to sex with minors or is pedophilia actually an abnormality? Society would like to tell us it is the later, but if I look back in history it seems more like the former.
Anyway, whether it is true or not, it got me to think. Marrying underage girls seemed to be the norm in many societies throughout history and sex was pretty much implied. In catholic societies marriage had even to be consummated by sex. It seems that sex with minors is also rather common in many tribal societies, but to be honest I don't really know a lot about that besides hearsay. We stigmatize somebody who has these urges to be a pervert or much worse, but is the interest in a minor actually a perversion or do most people just convince themselves they have no interest because of the social repercussions. I've heard from many people who grew up thinking gay sex is disgusting only to later in life find out they are bisexual. Could the same thing be happening here? Why else would it have been common in the past and considered a perversion today? Or do I just have my history wrong?
So what does the science say? Are we repressing our natural instincts because of social stigma and are actually biologically inclined to sex with minors or is pedophilia actually an abnormality? Society would like to tell us it is the later, but if I look back in history it seems more like the former.