Anyone else Dislike the term "MAP"

[Theendoftheline]

Think about it, a 17 yo could be dating say a 24 year old and people still view it with the same stigma as someone with a 10 year old, ones a teenager that "should" theoretically have near full agency over themselves (sadly most dont now days) and one is a literal pedo by the definition of the word, yet by the internets standards and many normies in general both are "disgusting pedos, or rather ANYONE above that magic age (18) is considered a predator and a pedo if they so much as look at anyone under 18 wrong....we live in very very weird times IMO. Social media and pedo panic has ruined so many young adults and teens imo in how they think and what they believe.

[bnkywuv]

I like the term as it sounds better than "PEDOPHILE!!!", but I don't like it at the same time because it seems to be too easily conflated with LGBTQ+.

[OnionPetal]

Think about it, a 17 yo could be dating say a 24 year old and people still view it with the same stigma as someone with a 10 year old [...]

The stigma is equally unjustifiable in each case. Because there are assumptions that people make about age gap relationships. Probably the same assumptions that you make about 'someone with a 10 year old.'

MAP is an umbrella-term bridging a collection of minor-attracted orientations, including ephebes, hebes, child-lovers, boy-lovers, girl-lovers, nepis, etc. It is based on the legal designation of a 'minor' (which might be different depending on jurisdictions), because that is the primary basis of enforcement. The term unites these different classes of MAPs who all face the same unjust stigmas, stereotypes, and oppression.

BOTH classes of MAP will go to prison if they read certain FICTION (with no real victims). BOTH classes will be arrested for viewing certain AI-generated images (with no real victims). BOTH classes are assumed to be 'evil' and 'predatory' for their attraction alone (NOT based on their actions!).

Yeah, there are differences among the orientations. The types of relationships desired by nepis versus ephebs are very different. So to suggest that nepis or child-lovers are more 'predatory' than ephebs, who desire completely different things, is really a red herring, based on mainstream media propaganda and stereotypes.

Some novices in the past thought that they could gain public favour for hebes and ephebs by restigmatising nepis and throwing child-lovers under the bus. But they only succeeded in fracturing the community and alienating those few who would support your shared aims. And you are not going to gain much public support by reinforcing the same false stereotypes and narratives that got you where you are today - with governments now using 'child safety' hysteria as a pretext for insane online surveillance and privacy violations that we should all be fighting against. ALL MAPs face the same unjust stigmas and stereotypes.

I like the term as it sounds better than "PEDOPHILE!!!" [...]

Exactly. The term 'paedophile' is not our term. It has been defined by people who hate us, and stigmatised strategically. Why should child lovers identify with a slur or a false stereotype? I like the term 'MAP' because it was created by minor attracted people who are taking ownership of the language that identifies themselves. And the mainstream media hates that!

[John_Doe]

Think about it, a 17 yo could be dating say a 24 year old and people still view it with the same stigma as someone with a 10 year old [...]

The stigma is equally unjustifiable in each case. Because there are assumptions that people make about age gap relationships. Probably the same assumptions that you make about 'someone with a 10 year old.'

MAP is an umbrella-term bridging a collection of minor-attracted orientations, including ephebes, hebes, child-lovers, boy-lovers, girl-lovers, nepis, etc. It is based on the legal designation of a 'minor' (which might be different depending on jurisdictions), because that is the primary basis of enforcement. The term unites these different classes of MAPs who all face the same unjust stigmas, stereotypes, and oppression.

BOTH classes of MAP will go to prison if they read certain FICTION (with no real victims). BOTH classes will be arrested for viewing certain AI-generated images (with no real victims). BOTH classes are assumed to be 'evil' and 'predatory' for their attraction alone (NOT based on their actions!).

Yeah, there are differences among the orientations. The types of relationships desired by nepis versus ephebs are very different. So to suggest that nepis or child-lovers are more 'predatory' than ephebs, who desire completely different things, is really a red herring, based on mainstream media propaganda and stereotypes.

Some novices in the past thought that they could gain public favour for hebes and ephebs by restigmatising nepis and throwing child-lovers under the bus. But they only succeeded in fracturing the community and alienating those few who would support your shared aims. And you are not going to gain much public support by reinforcing the same false stereotypes and narratives that got you where you are today - with governments now using 'child safety' hysteria as a pretext for insane online surveillance and privacy violations that we should all be fighting against. ALL MAPs face the same unjust stigmas and stereotypes.

I like the term as it sounds better than "PEDOPHILE!!!" [...]

Exactly. The term 'paedophile' is not our term. It has been defined by people who hate us, and stigmatised strategically. Why should child lovers identify with a slur or a false stereotype? I like the term 'MAP' because it was created by minor attracted people who are taking ownership of the language that identifies themselves. And the mainstream media hates that!

This is a very quick response, I won't cover everything I want to, but (as cultural norms; individual people are more or less tolerant) the stereotypes, stigma and 'oppression' applies to all significant age-gap relationships or attraction (at least when it's felt toward younger people), even when it comes to age-gap relationships between legal adults or an attraction felt by older adults to much younger adults.

When it comes to government coercion and not just social ostracism or condemnation (that's why I put 'oppression' in scare quotes, I know people might not see eye to eye on what constitutes 'oppression,' it might not just be taken as 'mistreatment' or some kind of discrimination. I want to bang my fucking computer, my mother starts coughing at the worst times), the oppression is mostly against adults who are interested in people under 16, maybe 17 (in Canada and probably most U.S states, 16-year-olds can legally consent to sex with people over 18 provided that the latter aren't in a position of authority over them and different places might make exemptions for people younger than 16-18 if the legal adult isn't much older. Yet, nude pics of 16/17-year-olds or the depiction of sexual activity involving them might be considered child porn. Correct me if I'm wrong on any of this).

I'm convinced that everyone who isn't asexual is minor-attracted whether they admit it or not, so the distinction to be made is between those who are honest about it or who would be willing to act on it under some hypothetical conditions and those who aren't or wouldn't. If the uniting factor is discrimination and the stigmatization of one's natural sexuality than I think an anti-age-gap taboo broadly movement might make more sense (if it's legal oppression then, again, depending on where you live that's not an issue when it comes to relationships with minors over 16 or 17. Then again, viewing content with them is still a legal problem, so you can have sex with them but go to jail if you film it or view pictures or videos depicting them having sex, if I understand the law), I don't know what term would capture that, maybe a personal label misses the point if the agenda is to defend an ideal for everyone's potential benefit and not create another special-status 'marginalized group.'

[Theendoftheline]

Think about it, a 17 yo could be dating say a 24 year old and people still view it with the same stigma as someone with a 10 year old [...]

The stigma is equally unjustifiable in each case. Because there are assumptions that people make about age gap relationships. Probably the same assumptions that you make about 'someone with a 10 year old.'

MAP is an umbrella-term bridging a collection of minor-attracted orientations, including ephebes, hebes, child-lovers, boy-lovers, girl-lovers, nepis, etc. It is based on the legal designation of a 'minor' (which might be different depending on jurisdictions), because that is the primary basis of enforcement. The term unites these different classes of MAPs who all face the same unjust stigmas, stereotypes, and oppression.

BOTH classes of MAP will go to prison if they read certain FICTION (with no real victims). BOTH classes will be arrested for viewing certain AI-generated images (with no real victims). BOTH classes are assumed to be 'evil' and 'predatory' for their attraction alone (NOT based on their actions!).

Yeah, there are differences among the orientations. The types of relationships desired by nepis versus ephebs are very different. So to suggest that nepis or child-lovers are more 'predatory' than ephebs, who desire completely different things, is really a red herring, based on mainstream media propaganda and stereotypes.

Some novices in the past thought that they could gain public favour for hebes and ephebs by restigmatising nepis and throwing child-lovers under the bus. But they only succeeded in fracturing the community and alienating those few who would support your shared aims. And you are not going to gain much public support by reinforcing the same false stereotypes and narratives that got you where you are today - with governments now using 'child safety' hysteria as a pretext for insane online surveillance and privacy violations that we should all be fighting against. ALL MAPs face the same unjust stigmas and stereotypes.

I like the term as it sounds better than "PEDOPHILE!!!" [...]

Exactly. The term 'paedophile' is not our term. It has been defined by people who hate us, and stigmatised strategically. Why should child lovers identify with a slur or a false stereotype? I like the term 'MAP' because it was created by minor attracted people who are taking ownership of the language that identifies themselves. And the mainstream media hates that!

This is a very quick response, I won't cover everything I want to, but (as cultural norms; individual people are more or less tolerant) the stereotypes, stigma and 'oppression' applies to all significant age-gap relationships or attraction (at least when it's felt toward younger people), even when it comes to age-gap relationships between legal adults or an attraction felt by older adults to much younger adults.

When it comes to government coercion and not just social ostracism or condemnation (that's why I put 'oppression' in scare quotes, I know people might not see eye to eye on what constitutes 'oppression,' it might not just be taken as 'mistreatment' or some kind of discrimination. I want to bang my fucking computer, my mother starts coughing at the worst times), the oppression is mostly against adults who are interested in people under 16, maybe 17 (in Canada and probably most U.S states, 16-year-olds can legally consent to sex with people over 18 provided that the latter aren't in a position of authority over them and different places might make exemptions for people younger than 16-18 if the legal adult isn't much older. Yet, nude pics of 16/17-year-olds or the depiction of sexual activity involving them might be considered child porn. Correct me if I'm wrong on any of this).

I'm convinced that everyone who isn't asexual is minor-attracted whether they admit it or not, so the distinction to be made is between those who are honest about it or who would be willing to act on it under some hypothetical conditions and those who aren't or wouldn't. If the uniting factor is discrimination and the stigmatization of one's natural sexuality than I think an anti-age-gap taboo broadly movement might make more sense (if it's legal oppression then, again, depending on where you live that's not an issue when it comes to relationships with minors over 16 or 17. Then again, viewing content with them is still a legal problem, so you can have sex with them but go to jail if you film it or view pictures or videos depicting them having sex, if I understand the law), I don't know what term would capture that, maybe a personal label misses the point if the agenda is to defend an ideal for everyone's potential benefit and not create another special-status 'marginalized group.'

YEAH we have all had moments where say a 15 yo with big breasts walks in the room and you go stiff like "dont look at her the wrong way DO NOT look at her the wrong way keep eyes up" because it is SO ingrained in us that shes a literal child that should not be a matter of sexual interest AT ALL over a certain age gap that being these days tbh around a 2 year age gap MAX. I was on social media and an 18 yo was helping a 15 yo with homework and people started calling the guy a "groomer" and that hes a "grown ass man that should not be interacting with a literal child"....its all just so so mind numbing when you think about it.

As for the age gap thing many places have romeo and Juliet laws that say things like you can date a minor with no more than a 4 year age gap any more than that and any sexule interaction becomes eligible for statutory from what i understand. Though looking at modern societies views and based off what i've seen on social media these days many teens call OTHER TEENS "pedos" for say a 17 yo dating a 15 yo because 17 is so close to 18 and then call 20 yo a pedo for being with a 16 or 17 yo. It seems now most teens want to be coddled late and consider themselves helpless children to the point where I had to explain to a 17 yo why them dating an 18 or 19 yo they liked was not wrong since a group they hung out in was insisting that any and all interaction between any legal adult and minor was wrong and predatory no matter what the age gap was.

The reason I sort side eyed the term MAP is because its such a broad term, places like reddit and other social media platforms are turning MAP into ANYONE over 18 that even thinks about dating a minor is a pedo so MAPS in general are becoming just as hated as straight up pedos because in our modern times according to many no adult should interact with a minor thats non related to them EVER, or something like that.

[Kierkegaard]

I don't really like the term as a personal identity label for myself, it feels very clinical and stilted. I actually prefer how pedophile sounds, despite the connotation being more negative.

I do think it's funny how much people seethe when they hear the term 'MAP', though. Any activism which upsets Antis is good in my book. It's especially satisfying how angry they get when professionals use it and they realize the scientific is beginning to turn against them and support MAP acceptance.

[Scorchingwilde]

I like it precisely because it's an umbrella term, and while much of the world hates pedophiles, most people wouldn't even know what "hebephile" means, so while I get that MAPs with a younger AoA feel like it's a euphemism and attempt to soften their identity for onlookers, I personally feel like there's a degree of solidarity and defiance of norms in it.