Uhhh fictional pedophilia is still pedophilia “cute” picnic dates or not—
Pedophilia is attraction to prepubescent children. The proper term for attraction to post-pubescent minors, AKA teenagers, AKA adolescents, is ephebophilia. Nitpicking? Probably. But if you’re going to lob accusations, you should be using the proper term. Not doing so just makes you look like an ignoramus who’s trying to be deliberately inflammatory by using a hot-button word. And using the wrong word really doesn’t help anyone take you seriously.
2) “Fictional pedophilia is still pedophilia.” Even ignoring the misuse of vocabulary in this case, this statement is beyond stupid. Would you argue that fictional murder is still murder? Are you going to try to put Thanos on trial for causing mass destruction in the MCU? Of course not, because Thanos isn’t real. Kevin and Tall Boy aren’t real. Me writing them going on a picnic date affects nothing and no one, just like a writer penning a murder mystery isn’t affecting real people. Fictional things aren’t happening in real life just by virtue of being written.
And if you are so concerned about reality, consider this: the majority of the US and the world has sixteen as the age of consent. The majority of the world considers sixteen to be the age when a real live actual teenager, can acceptably go out and go on picnic dates with a thirty-five-year-old biker dude.
Now, personally, I don’t think this is super relevant, since, like I said above and in my previous posts, Kevin and Tall Boy are fictional characters and what people write and enjoy in fiction doesn’t equate to enjoy something IRL. For another example, I doubt many people who read and write apocalyptic fiction would welcome the apocalypse actually occurring. But since you seem so concerned with the impact of Kevin/Tall Boy on real life, maybe it’s a relief to you to know that in the majority of not only the US, but also Canada, Europe, and Asia, this relationship would be considered fine, since Kevin is sixteen. Yeah, they’re probably going to think it’s weird, due to the age difference, but ultimately fine in legal terms.
So, maybe this information will help you rest easy, even if knowing the characters are fictional doesn’t?
Look, you do not have to like this pairing. You can hate it. You can even think it’s immoral. But stop trying to police people from writing it. Like, what exactly do you think me writing them going on picnics and Kevin needing to get hitched with Tall Boy for an arranged marriage because of Northside/Southside tensions is encouraging? Either are such oddly specific scenarios that they almost couldn’t be translated to RL, and even if they could be, they wouldn’t be able to happen on a large scale or even medium or small scale. I’m just genuinely baffled by what you seem to think is so dangerous here.
I’ve pretty much said my piece on this and don’t feel the need to discuss it further. But I am strongly considering reacting to your next complaint by just writing a Tall Boy/Kevin ficlet.
