ephebophilia

The term ephebophilia comes from the {{langx|grc|ἔφηβος}} ephebos (from epi "upon" + hebe "youth", "early manhood") defined as "a youth of eighteen to twenty, particularly one who underwent his dokimasia and was registered as a citizen (Athens)", and {{lang|grc|φιλία}} -philia {{gloss|love}}.{{cite journal |last=Rahman |first=T. |year=1988 |title=Ephebophilia: the case for the use of a new word |journal=Forum for Modern Language Studies |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=126–141 |doi=10.1093/fmls/XXIV.2.126 }} It has been used in publications by Dutch psychologist Frits Bernard in 1950,{{cite web|url=http://www.nvva.nl/rijzendezon/catalogs/c00137.htm |access-date=2009-07-06 |title=Sexology |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219190818/http://www.nvva.nl/rijzendezon/catalogs/c00137.htm |archive-date=2008-12-19 }} and reprinted in 1960 in the gay support magazine Vriendschap under the pseudonym Victor Servatius,Bernard, F. (1998). Selected publications of Dr Frits Bernard – An international bibliography. Rotterdam: Enclave.{{page needed|date=August 2016}} crediting the origin of the term to Magnus Hirschfeld with no exact date given.Servatius, V. (1960, March 15). {{lang|nl|Ephebophilie en wetenschap}} [Ephebophilia and science]. [http://www.ihlia.nl/documents/pdflib/Vriendschap/1960/1960-04.pdf Vriendschap] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928081916/http://www.ihlia.nl/documents/pdflib/Vriendschap/1960/1960-04.pdf |date=2007-09-28 }}, 35-35. The word was in fact first published in French ({{lang|fr|éphébophilie}}), from Georges Saint-Paul's 1896 book, Tares et Poisons: Perversion et Perversité Sexuelles.{{cite journal |last1=Janssen |first1=Diederik F. |title='Chronophilia': Entries of Erotic Age Preference into Descriptive Psychopathology |journal=Medical History |volume=59 |issue=4 |pages=575–98 |year=2015 |pmid=26352305 |pmc=4595948 |doi=10.1017/mdh.2015.47 }}

The term was described by Frenchman Félix Buffière in 1980,Buffière, F. (1980). {{lang|fr|Éros adolescent : la pédérastie dans la Grèce antique}}, Paris, p. 11. and Pakistani scholar Tariq Rahman,{{cite journal |last=Rahman |first=T. |year=1990 |title=Boy-Love in the Urdu Ghazal |journal=Annual of Urdu Studies |volume=7 |pages=1–20 }} who argued that ephebophilia should be especially used with regard to homosexuality when describing the aesthetic and erotic interest of adult men in adolescent boys in classical Persian, Turkish, or Urdu literature. The term was additionally revived by Ray Blanchard to denote men who sexually prefer 15- to 19-year-olds. The typical ephebophilic age range has also been given as ages 15–16.{{cite book|vauthors =Phenix A, Hoberman H|title =Sexual Offending: Predisposing Antecedents, Assessments and Management|publisher=Springer|year=2015|page=30|isbn=978-1493924165|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NhEpCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA30}} Women's sexual interest in adolescents has been studied significantly less than men's sexual interest in adolescents.

Although ephebophilia is not a psychiatric diagnosis, the term pedophilia is commonly used by the general public and the media, at least in the English-speaking world, to refer to any sexual interest by significantly older adults in minors below the local age of consent or even people below the local age of majority, regardless of their level of physical and/or mental development.{{cite book|vauthors=Gavin H|title=Criminological and Forensic Psychology|isbn=978-1118510377|publisher=SAGE Publications|year=2013|access-date=July 7, 2018|page=155|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=daqHAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA155|archive-date=March 30, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330110422/https://books.google.com/books?id=daqHAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA155|url-status=live}}{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_mayo-clinic-proceedings_2007-04_82_4/page/457 |title=Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2007-04: Vol 82 Iss 4 |date=April 2007 |publisher=Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research |others=Internet Archive |language=English}}{{cite encyclopedia | title = Pedophilia | url = https://www.britannica.com/topic/pedophilia | encyclopedia = Encyclopædia Britannica | access-date = July 19, 2015 | archive-date = February 25, 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210225153604/https://www.britannica.com/topic/pedophilia | url-status = live}}

Mid-to-late adolescents typically have physical characteristics near or identical to that of legal adults. Because of this, scholars Skye Stephens and Michael C. Seto argue that ephebophilia contrasts what a paraphilia entails since "older adolescents are reproductively viable and the fact that typically men are sexually attracted to older adolescents, as reflected in self-report, psychophysiological, and pornography use studies." Psychiatrist and sexologist Fred Berlin states that most men can find persons in this age group sexually attractive, but that "of course, that doesn't mean they're going to act on it. Some men who become involved with teenagers may not have a particular disorder. Opportunity and other factors may have contributed to their behaving in the way they do".{{cite web|first=Frederick|last=S. Berlin|title=Interview with Frederick S. Berlin, M.D., Ph.D.| publisher=Office of Media Relations |access-date=2008-06-27 |url=http://www.usccb.org/comm/kit6.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110623130406/http://www.usccb.org/comm/kit6.shtml|archive-date=2011-06-23}} According to psychologist and sexologist James Cantor, it is "very common for regular men to be attracted to 18-year-olds or 20-year-olds. It's not unusual for a typical 16-year-old to be attractive to many men and the younger we go the fewer and fewer men are attracted to that age group."{{cite magazine|first=Wesley|last=Stephenson|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28526106|title=How many men are paedophiles?|magazine=BBC Magazine|publisher=BBC|location=London, England|date=30 July 2014|access-date=2 December 2018}}

Ephebophilia is used only to describe the preference for mid-to-late adolescent sexual partners, not the mere presence of some level of sexual attraction. Generally, the preference is not regarded by psychologists as a pathology, as long as it does not interfere with other major areas of one's life. It is not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5) or the ICD-10.

Blanchard et al. stated that hebephilia, erotic interest which centers on young pubescents, has not come into widespread use, even among professionals who work with sex offenders, and may have been confused with the term ephebophilia, which denotes a preference for older adolescents. They reasoned that "few would want to label erotic interest in late—or even mid—adolescents as a psychopathology, so the term hebephilia may have been ignored along with ephebophilia". Although Stephens and Seto argue that, in contrast to ephebophilia, "conceptually, hebephilia is a paraphilia, reflecting an atypical (statistically rare) sexual age interest in pubescent children", they also state hebephilia has not been widely accepted as a paraphilia or mental disorder and that there is significant academic debate as to whether it should be classified as either.

{{Portal|Human sexuality}}

• Age disparity in sexual relationships
• Ageplay
• Cougar (slang)
• Enjo kōsai
• Hebephilia
• Jailbait
• Pederasty
• Sugar dating

{{Reflist}}

{{Wikiquote}}

{{wiktionary}}

{{Pedophilia}}

Category:Adolescence

Category:Youth

Category:Chronophilia