I mean I also want to mention how attraction to a 16 year old would actually be called Ephebophilia.

But most people actually arguing for that point are obnoxious twats, so I'll just shut up while I'm behind. lmao

As far as fictional characters are concerned, I think it's dumb to call people pedos for being sexually attracted to teenage characters (14 to 18 year olds). Especially when it's teen females that are drawn in the manga/anime with huge boobs.

I'm curious, what makes you say that?

I hear that argument a lot for people trying to justify it in real life with a much wider age gap, when there are still legal ramifications (not to mention power dynamic issues), is the main problem.

I mean, fair enough I guess, but I find people who also brush off the definition of ephebophilia completely, and proceed to get angry or quippy about it are also assholes.

For them, the mere word makes them see red and it never made any sense to me.

We had a convo about this once before remember? We remembered that even the word hebephilia exists, lol.

Actual pedophilia and hebephilia are serious problems in society and need to be dealt with through proper education for society so that people who identify as those can seek help rather than just repress themselves to an explosive extent and find ways to feed their desires at the cost of innocents.

Ephebophilia, on the other hand, is something everyone in the world has likely experienced unless they hit puberty after age 18 and only ever are sexually interested in people their own age and older (but I can confidently say I'm in the minority who has always preferred only adult women, since day 1! lol). It's ridiculous for people to not think that's a reality, just accept it and focus on the real issue - don't screw with teens in real life no matter how hot they (are trying to) look. The reason society lumped them together with pre-pubescent kids is because of the social and developmental issues that come with teen pregnancy... teens that have kids will have a harder time of getting through basic education, it's as simple as that, not to mention put the kid they have at a disadvantage too.

But I wouldn't get your hopes up about society ever becoming more education, in fact too many jurisdiction in North America already have inadequate sex-ed in their schools and many are even further rolling them back due to moral/religious/parental panic.

This reminds me when a few yrs back twitter was calling Henry cavill a pedo cuz he was dating a 20 something yr old and he was in his 30s I'm like you serious, people are just dumb man

Yeah we even got people calling 20 year olds children or "just a baby" depending on the context, lol. Age difference in relationships is a massive ick factor for most people. Perceptions, assumptions and emotions often override facts and logic in our world.

Yh I freaking hate when people online call 20 yr Olds babies like mf 20 yr Olds are old enough to have sex get a job and do other adult things that's not a child smh

^
Funny enough, there was basically already a (tongue in cheek) term for something like that.

It's called cradle robbing. lol

Hell, they even said that about my dad in his 40's, dating my mom in her 30's. :P