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Ephebophilia is the primary sexual interest in mid-to-late adolescents, generally ages 15 to 19 and showing Tanner stages 4 to 5 of physical development.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=pmid18686026>Template:Cite journal</ref> The term was originally used in the late 19th to mid-20th century.<ref name=pmid18686026/> It is one of a number of sexual preferences across age groups subsumed under the technical term chronophilia. Ephebophilia strictly denotes the preference for mid-to-late adolescent sexual partners, not the mere presence of some level of sexual attraction.<ref name=pmid18686026/> It is not a psychiatric diagnosis.<ref name="Miller">Template:Cite book</ref>
In research environments, specific terms are used for chronophilias: for instance, ephebophilia to refer to the sexual preference for mid-to-late adolescents, hebephilia to refer to the sexual preference for earlier pubescent individuals, and pedophilia to refer to the primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children.<ref name=pmid18686026/><ref name="Miller"/>
Etymology and definitionsEdit
The term ephebophilia comes from the Template:Langx 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 {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} -philia Template:Gloss.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> It has been used in publications by Dutch psychologist Frits Bernard in 1950,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and reprinted in 1960 in the gay support magazine Vriendschap under the pseudonym Victor Servatius,<ref>Bernard, F. (1998). Selected publications of Dr Frits Bernard – An international bibliography. Rotterdam: Enclave.Template:Page needed</ref> crediting the origin of the term to Magnus Hirschfeld with no exact date given.<ref>Servatius, V. (1960, March 15). {{#invoke:Lang|lang}} [Ephebophilia and science]. Vriendschap Template:Webarchive, 35-35.</ref> The word was in fact first published in French ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}), from Georges Saint-Paul's 1896 book, Tares et Poisons: Perversion et Perversité Sexuelles.<ref name="janssen">Template:Cite journal</ref>
The term was described by Frenchman Félix Buffière in 1980,<ref>Buffière, F. (1980). {{#invoke:Lang|lang}}, Paris, p. 11.</ref> and Pakistani scholar Tariq Rahman,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref name=pmid18686026/> The typical ephebophilic age range has also been given as ages 15–16.<ref name="Phenix">Template:Cite book</ref> Women's sexual interest in adolescents has been studied significantly less than men's sexual interest in adolescents.<ref name="Phenix"/>
Although ephebophilia is not a psychiatric diagnosis,<ref name="Miller"/> 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.<ref name="Gavin">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="www.usccb.org"/><ref name=britannica>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
CharacteristicsEdit
Mid-to-late adolescents typically have physical characteristics near or identical to that of legal adults.<ref name="Phenix"/> 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."<ref name="Phenix"/> 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".<ref name="www.usccb.org">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 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."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
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.<ref name=pmid18686026/> 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.<ref name="Miller"/>
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.<ref name=pmid18686026/> 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".<ref name=pmid18686026/> 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.<ref name="Phenix"/>
See alsoEdit
- Age disparity in sexual relationships
- Ageplay
- Cougar (slang)
- Enjo kōsai
- Hebephilia
- Jailbait
- Pederasty
- Sugar dating