Polanski addendum: pedophilia?
A question for anyone with psychology smarts: is Roman Polanski a pedophile? Yes, he raped a child, but she was a post-pubescent child, one who sorta-kinda-almost looked like a woman.
Before you freak out, this absolutely does NOT excuse, justify or mitigate the enormity of Polanski’s crime. I’m just curious about whether his predilection for preying on young teens is technically pedophilia, as opposed to just a disgusting extension of the “barely legal!” fetish genre.
My understanding is that a true pedophile is attracted to children precisely because they don’t look like adults. Pedophiles are attracted to pre-pubescent kids who have yet to develop curves/facial hair–that’s what upgrades the perpetrators from “douchebag” to “mentally ill.”
Roman Polanski is a lot of things–rapist, predator, criminal, egomaniac–but pedophile? I’m not so sure.
