Is there a difference between being attracted to a child and wanting to be a child? Yes. But there is also overlap.

Bly Rede is a former co-director of Virtuous Pedophiles. Blog posts reflect his personal views, and are not statements from the organisation.

This study by @kevinjhsu et al didn't get a huge amount of attention at the time but contained the suggestion that maybe half of MAPs experience some form of identifying with/as a child.

There are many forms of/names for this, including >

Quote Tweet Andrew Brankley @AEBrankley · Aug 19, 2019

Amazing Article on Autopedophilia by @kevinjhsu & @profjmb! Sexual arousal to fantasies of being a child common (49.1%) amongst participants with #pedophilia #hebephilia

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797616677082#articleShareContainer

> about three sometimes overlapping categories I'm aware of.

The first category contains people sexually aroused by the thought of being a different age. Generically this is known as autochronophilia.

It includes. >

> autopedophilia (sexual arousal at the thought of being a child), autonepiophilia (same but toddlers) and autoinfantophilia. Others too.

Then there is age dysphoria which is about identity, and specifically feeling that the age you are physically doesn't match the age you are >

> inside and experiencing revulsion at e.g. your adult face and body, wishing instead to have the appearance of a child.

It could even express as a wish to be a child mentally too, in a fully authentic way, not as a fetish.

The third category is people who roleplay as >

> children, sexually or nonsexually. They may or may not have a conviction that they are "really" a child but they do pursue the sensations and experiences of childhood using their imagination and sometimes clothes and real-life roleplay. These are ageplayers.

Like I said, >

> the categories are overlapping ones. You can be fetishistically into "being" a kid in a self consciously fictional way or you could go so far as to consider yourself trans-age or you might combine various aspects. It's a nebulous thing.

In all the above cases it can be quite >

> decentered from the self.

You might have an "inner child" that is the same child that you were yourself in the past, or you might have one that reflects an ideal, looking and behaving completely differently to how you did.

Taken together these all are a form of >

> displacing of one's outer self - the self that biology and the progression of time has produced.

It's also striving toward somehow inhabiting a self that never was or recovering a self that has passed irretrievably into history.

It is not much talked about in either >

> public MAP discourse (for fear of confusing our pressing message about abuse prevention and destigmatisation).

But this study suggests the link is clearly there, and that it may not just be a minority thing among MAPs and that it needs more attention. ::

This content was removed from Twitter in 2020 because the author's account was suspended.

the p word is a collection of 293 articles, blogs, podcasts and threads in the voices of pedophiles and others who oppose adult child sexual contact and sexual exploitation of children. Despite our mainstream views, this content is frequently removed from mainstream social media or blog sites because openly discussing pedophile attractions or avowing them are not tolerated. Our side of the conversation continues here.

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reviews: safe from harm and let's talk: child sexual abuse

why not just keep quiet?

she was, like, no

bly rede

A BBC radio drama and an online documentary from Channel 4 both open up the topic of non-offending pedophilia

ethan edwards

We pedophiles do not disappear when you stop thinking about us. We're still here.

beth

I've been through a lot of therapists, but the first one... I said "I'm attracted to children... are you still comfortable working with me?" And she just kind of stared at me and she was like "No."

A BBC radio drama and an online documentary from Channel 4 both open up the topic of non-offending pedophilia

We pedophiles do not disappear when you stop thinking about us. We're still here.

I've been through a lot of therapists, but the first one... I said "I'm attracted to children... are you still comfortable working with me?" And she just kind of stared at me and she was like "No."