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You have to be careful when using a word like "normal". Sometimes it just is used to mean that something is common or typical, as in "the normal length of a baseball game is 9 innings". A baseball game that goes 12 innings is not normal, in this sense of the word, but that says nothing about whether it is a good or a bad thing. The other use of "normal" is to say that something is good because it is typical. Saying "his behavior seems normal to me" is a way of saying you don't think there is anything wrong with how the person is behaving. Being sexually attracted to children is typically thought not to be normal in the first sense, although there is good reason to question that. If your definition of "pedophilia" includes being attracted to 15-year-olds (as the popular use of the word would include, but many here would vigorously say it does not) then pedophilia might be very common. There have been many cases of female models that age who have been regarded as sexually appealing by typical heterosexual men. The question of how common it is to be sexually attracted to pre-pubescent children is probably very hard to know. Most people who have such attractions will not admit to them and if they are also attracted to people their own age they might even be in denial about their own feelings. But it is possible that many people, even most people, have some sexual attraction to younger children. As to whether it is normal in the second sense, it is neither normal nor abnormal. People's attractions just are. You are not a good or bad person, a better or worse one based on who you are sexually attracted to and who you love. The question of whether it is normal in this sense is beside the point. But if forced to give a yes-or-no answer, the answer is "yes". But there is one more consideration: Just because the feelings are normal does not make acting on them acceptable, at least not in all situations. An adult who acts on his sexual attraction for another adult without that person's agreement is a rapist. If various forms of deception or manipulation are used that is also wrong. Dishonesty and disloyalty in a relationship between adults are typically regarded as other ways you can act wrongly toward someone you love. All of that is also the case with an adult-child relationship. The anti-pedos will tell you that at least some of that is always present in any sexual relationship between an adult and a child or even in any romantic but non-sexual relationship between an adult and a child. They are certainly wrong about that. But that does not mean that a romantic or sexual relationship with a child is actually possible given the current social and legal situation. Some people believe that the hysteria about pedophilia and the typical response of most people to adult-child relationships makes the risks to great for a child to be in such a relationship, so an adult who truly cares about the child will not engage in a sexual relationship with him. Others disagree. You will hear both views (and other variations on them) here. I am one who is of the view that the risk is too great. There is an army of people ready, willing, able and just waiting to destroy a kids life when it is discovered that he had a romantic or sexual relationship with an adult. I have seen a boy I love emotionally destroyed by such actions. So I look at the risks to the boy and can't imagine exposing a boy I really care about to them. Again, others here will disagree, but that's at least how I see it. |