Originally posted by Last Conformist
Attraction to teens is "ephebophilia".
Attraction to teens is "ephebophilia".
* An alternate term, less widely used, is hebephilia.
I thought that was love of Jews.
* The nature of ephebophilia is unresolved, and a variety of perspectives are held. Some regard ephebophilia as merely a milder form of pedophilia, in which the object of attraction is closer to what is "normal" than with a true pedophile. According to one theory, ephebophilia is a chronophilia, i.e. a paraphilia in which the paraphile's sexual/erotic age is discordant with his or her actual chronological age, and is instead concordant with the age of the partner.
Others argue that a consistent preference for adolescents is merely normal attraction to individuals at or near the peak of their sexual capability, and reflects a biologically "normal" reproductive strategy (in contrast to a preference for pre-pubescents, which does not and is therefore pathological). Sociobiological research shows that primate males tend to prefer young females of reproductive age. For example, a study on human male preferences showed that males from the age of 7 years and up tended to prefer the faces of 17-year-old girls over those of other ages.
I'm guilty of finding older teenage girls attractive. In fact I've never not found them attractive as far back as I can remember, though I'm not so crazy about it as to ruin their lives or mine. It's certainly not an exclusive thing either, I like women of various ages.
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