Should the acronym AAM be updated?

[MAPallmylife66]

I have to disagree. The term "young person" is extremely condescending. I would never call a legal minor that.

They should just legally be referred to as jailbait.

I think the idea here is to get to a point where they're not jail bait!

[MAPallmylife66]

I have to disagree. The term "young person" is extremely condescending. I would never call a legal minor that.

But the word "minor" isn't condescending? I personally feel like the word minor is demeaning. It implies less than something else, or in this case, someone else.

[Grunko]

Maybe just like we have gay, lesbian, we need to create new words to describe people who are attracted to people from different ages to them.
For example,
Youthian: refers to people attracted to those who are younger then them
Othian: refers to people attracted to those older than them
Biyolian: refers to those attracted to people of all ages- same age, older or younger

These are just examples of ideas.

[John_Doe]

Maybe just like we have gay, lesbian, we need to create new words to describe people who are attracted to people from different ages to them.
For example,
Youthian: refers to people attracted to those who are younger then them
Othian: refers to people attracted to those older than them
Biyolian: refers to those attracted to people of all ages- same age, older or younger

These are just examples of ideas.

It seems to me that you're trying to put people into these neat and rigid separate age categories in a way that I find unrealistic, I don't know how to put this. Even drawing a perfect line between true pedophiles and hebephiles/teleiophiles is difficult because at what exact moment does a child become more or less sexually attractive to any given person? Unless you're equally attracted to infants, the elderly and everyone in-between it will be a gradual process (not to mention that people start to develop at different ages) and attraction is relative. I've never really agreed with the terms 'MAP' and 'AAM' because I'm convinced that all teleiophiles are attracted to people under 18 and in my teens I didn't know of a single person in my age group who wasn't attracted to adults in their 20s/30s, that would be the age group that most media sex symbols belong to. 'YAP' seems somewhat vague to me because 'youth' is relative, it applies to people who are attracted to 30-year-olds and even a 50-year-old is relatively young in contrast with someone in their 70s.

It's strange to me that someone could start out as some version of a biyolian (maybe not attracted to all ages but attracted to people in their own age group and to those who are somewhat older) and then end up a youthian (which more or less describes my situation). To be fair, 'heterosexual' doesn't describe what someone is attracted to per se either although the idea might be that the dynamic between a man and a woman is different than that between two women.

[MAPallmylife66]

Maybe just like we have gay, lesbian, we need to create new words to describe people who are attracted to people from different ages to them.
For example,
Youthian: refers to people attracted to those who are younger then them
Othian: refers to people attracted to those older than them
Biyolian: refers to those attracted to people of all ages- same age, older or younger

These are just examples of ideas.

It seems to me that you're trying to put people into these neat and rigid separate age categories in a way that I find unrealistic, I don't know how to put this. Even drawing a perfect line between true pedophiles and hebephiles/teleiophiles is difficult because at what exact moment does a child become more or less sexually attractive to any given person? Unless you're equally attracted to infants, the elderly and everyone in-between it will be a gradual process (not to mention that people start to develop at different ages) and attraction is relative. I've never really agreed with the terms 'MAP' and 'AAM' because I'm convinced that all teleiophiles are attracted to people under 18 and in my teens I didn't know of a single person in my age group who wasn't attracted to adults in their 20s/30s, that would be the age group that most media sex symbols belong to. 'YAP' seems somewhat vague to me because 'youth' is relative, it applies to people who are attracted to 30-year-olds and even a 50-year-old is relatively young in contrast with someone in their 70s.

It's strange to me that someone could start out as some version of a biyolian (maybe not attracted to all ages but attracted to people in their own age group and to those who are somewhat older) and then end up a youthian (which more or less describes my situation). To be fair, 'heterosexual' doesn't describe what someone is attracted to per se either although the idea might be that the dynamic between a man and a woman is different than that between two women.

My whole point behind this thread was to get people thinking about minors, as people, and not just a lable. I've always thought the word "minor", as being diminutive, and less than human. I don't know if Adult Attracted Young Person (AAYP), is the right fit, but if you think about it "Adult Attracted", with "Young Person", implies that said young person, is not yet an adult, because if they were, there would be no reason for the distinction, and that said young person is attracted to adults. I just thought it more appropriate, and inclusive for these people, who are trying desperately to be seen and heard, than "minor", whether it's a legal lable, or not. I would really like to get input from the people in this category, who are on here.

[DANAT4T]

I have to disagree. The term "young person" is extremely condescending. I would never call a legal minor that.

But the word "minor" isn't condescending? I personally feel like the word minor is demeaning. It implies less than something else, or in this case, someone else.

Okay. The term "minor" is defined by law. The term "young person" is subjective. Nope.

[MAPallmylife66]

I have to disagree. The term "young person" is extremely condescending. I would never call a legal minor that.

But the word "minor" isn't condescending? I personally feel like the word minor is demeaning. It implies less than something else, or in this case, someone else.

Okay. The term "minor" is defined by law. The term "young person" is subjective. Nope.

Why are we worried about what is defined by law, or not, when we ourselves are considered illegal by most normies out there. I say f**k legal definitions. None of them are legitimate in my opinion!

[TheHamilplexOfficial]

Maybe just like we have gay, lesbian, we need to create new words to describe people who are attracted to people from different ages to them.
For example,
Youthian: refers to people attracted to those who are younger then them
Othian: refers to people attracted to those older than them
Biyolian: refers to those attracted to people of all ages- same age, older or younger

These are just examples of ideas.

omnichronophilia and panchronophilia describe the last attraction you mentioned. omni for all or most ages with a preferance and pan for all ages without preference

[grey99]

AAM and MAP are acronyms for something out of the ordinary. I am a MAP, and I support AAMs, but I don't think it's the mainstream and probably won't be, no matter how much I tell myself that anyone can be attracted to a minor (or be a "minor" and be adult-attracted).

I think the difference is it's a conscious acceptance of the sexual and romantic drive *despite* the social programming. Sure most teenagers would find people in their 20s and 30s attractive, if they're objectively attractive. But that isn't the point. Also I would hazard to say most adult hetero men could admit, in a safe space, that e.g. a 12-13yo girl is attractive, that's very different from accepting and living with the knowledge that you find say 8-10 year olds sexually attractive.

There is something to the AAM/MAP person, I truly believe that. It's not a lifestyle, not a fetish, but it isn't the mainstream, and so loose labels can be helpful, because they take away the stigma that paedophile has given us.

As for minors, just the very concept of the AAM has blown some minds and it is what we needed in this conversation for years. It takes away the conversation starting point, which is the false image of all adult-minor relations as being predatory. It's beautiful and I hope more minors start using the term. Nobody's going to entrap an AAM on a YouTube live for having a genuine drive for romantic or sexual relationships with adults 3/4/5x older than them, and that is progress.

[John_Doe]

AAM and MAP are acronyms for something out of the ordinary. I am a MAP, and I support AAMs, but I don't think it's the mainstream and probably won't be, no matter how much I tell myself that anyone can be attracted to a minor (or be a "minor" and be adult-attracted).

That's why I don't really like them. I don't think an attraction to people under the age of 18 is out of the ordinary. I don't think there are teleiophiles who aren't attracted to teens and pre-teens who look as though they're fertile and capable of reproduction.

I think the difference is it's a conscious acceptance of the sexual and romantic drive *despite* the social programming.

I think we should differentiate between attraction and ideology. The concept of 'aromanticism' once appealed to me (I don't agree with it, I won't get into why) because I thought that it could help capture my ideological problems with sexual exclusivity alongside my personal aversion to what tends to come to mind when I think of 'polyamory' and 'swinging' (swinging could be considered a form of emotional/social monogamy or exclusivity but with polyamory I'm just turned off by a lot of the ideas around it, the concept of a group marriage, multiple committed relationships, the de-emphasis of sexual attraction, i.e. 'it's not about sex, it's about love, it's a lot of work, ' which put me in a difficult position because even though I would only be interested in 'casual sex' I wouldn't be interested in sex without emotional intimacy so I couldn't be a social butterfly polyamorous person but a lot of what's attached to 'aromantic allosexuality' isn't appealing to me either) but attraction has nothing to do with 'politics' or one's philosophical outlook. I think it's more meaningful to identify people by their values than by who they're involuntarily attracted to, although that's a side point.

Sure most teenagers would find people in their 20s and 30s attractive, if they're objectively attractive. But that isn't the point.

Why not?

Also I would hazard to say most adult hetero men could admit, in a safe space, that e.g. a 12-13yo girl is attractive, that's very different from accepting and living with the knowledge that you find say 8-10 year olds sexually attractive.

If the distinction is just between 8-10-year-olds and 12-13-year-olds I think 'pedophile' covers the former. If it's with the social stigma or struggle, again, I don't think that should be the basis for a label that denotes attraction. I also think that you might be understating how taboo it is for grown men to admit to being attracted to 12-13-year old girls in 2026, in Western culture, but I could be over-generalizing (and I'm sure that true pedophiles are generally more discriminated against, although people will pretend that they don't make a distinction with their very open-ended concept of 'pedophilia,' there's something to be said about the fact that much of the prejudice against open hebephiles/ephebophiles/people who are attracted to significantly younger legal adults stems from the prejudice against pedophiles which is why the smear is 'you're a pedophile' and not just 'you're attracted to younger people,' it's arguably an extension of anti-pedosexuality).

There is something to the AAM/MAP person, I truly believe that. It's not a lifestyle, not a fetish, but it isn't the mainstream, and so loose labels can be helpful, because they take away the stigma that paedophile has given us.

I think I somewhat understand what you're saying and it's possible I'm overly concerned with literalism or hyper-precise labeling but there's also an argument to be made for being honest about how normal minor attraction in adults is (or attraction to adults in minors. I don't think minors being attracted to adults is very stigmatized, I could be wrong, it seems to me that most people would see it as natural or as a harmless crush as long as those feelings aren't reciprocated and no adult takes advantage of them), even though it shouldn't ultimately matter it can help to debunk justifications for a bad idea even when doing so doesn't capture why the idea is ultimately invalid and one of the justifications for the anti-age-gap relationships taboo seems to be its abnormality or deviance. This reminds me of the 'queer vs gay' distinction I've only relatively recently been made aware of, where 'queer' apparently notes an ideology or sub-culture and gay people are just defined by their actual orientation.

It seems to me that part of the MAP labeling is about wanting to differentiate from the majority in a new marginalized group but emphasizing commonality with the majority might be an effective strategy. I just don't think that adults who are attracted to teenagers are literally abnormal even if coming out of the closet puts one at serious risk for discrimination from people who have the exact same attraction as you. I don't want to play into the denial of human biology/normal human sexuality that is one of the justifications for the anti-age-gap taboo.