Minor attracted neologisms

Part of NewgonWiki's series on minor-attracted identities
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Category: Minor-attracted people
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Some people more or less involved in the minor-attracted community have coined neologisms for sexual attractions to legal minors. The primary intention of such coinages is to avoid the negative and sometimes excessive connotations of the term "pedophile".

The terms see limited use in on-line communities, websites and literature, including academia.

• Childlove - A unifying term that was particularly popular in the early online communities (pre-2010) of minor attracted people - even among some early second-wave MAP Activists. This term still sees some use, but is usually confined to peer support communities due to its reading as non-objective.

• Pedosexual - An attempt to standardize pedophilia as a sexual preference or orientation, coined by analogy with the terms heterosexual and homosexual. Critics of this term note that neologisms tend to alienate readers and listeners, and the obvious resonance with the term "pedophile" does not succeed in redefining the connotation. The term also suffers in the same way as Zoosexuality, in that it mixes sexual (M/F) preference with another strand, in this case, chronophilia (animals or age ranges are not sexes).

• Minor-attracted is a predominantly social-political, gender-neutral term with some popular variations as used in academia and on websites such as this one. Critics have noted that these obvious euphemisms may serve to draw more, not less, attention to the negative connotations they seek to avoid. There is also debate around the use of "minor", with some seeing it as belittling to youth and others seeing it as a self-critiquing legal term, carrying little-to no naturalistic prejudice (as opposed to "child").

• Minor Attracted Person (abbreviated MAP) - A generic/inclusive term for anybody who is sexually attracted to legal minors. The term draws meaning from legal statutes as well as personal feelings, and is therefore excellent for social-political uses but a poor specifier. For these reasons, the term is currently in use by the groups B4U-Act and Newgon.

• Adult Attracted Minor (abbreviated AAM) - The term was first used by Rookiee - but appears to have become more popular in online social media communities around 2018-20, as MAP became more widely used.

• Minor Attracted Adult (abbreviated MAA) - A term sometimes used as a social/clinical concept in academia (e.g. Sarah Goode), but also popular among self-aware individuals who conform to it. Critics have argued that the term excludes many younger persons who aren't yet adults and also does not accurately describe people in places where the age of majority is quite low.

• Responsible Boylove - A term invented by David Riegel, who believes that the term "boylover" is being used by "irresponsible" men who even intend harm to boys. Riegel intends to distinguish himself and others from this group by using this term. Critics of this term see it as an implication that boylove itself is somehow inherently irresponsible and must be thusly distinguished. Others have described the term as a laughably naive oxymoron, as it appears to make the assumption that true love may be at all responsible.

• Puersexual - A recoinage of "pedophile" using the Latinate root for "boy." Critics note that this term suffers from many of the same problems as "pedosexual" in addition to being more obscure.

• Amaros, Amarso, Amarsi - Identifying that "[m]any have pointed out that there is no terminology that refers collectively to both the younger and older parties in an adult-minor relationship.", AP has proposed Attraction between Minors and Adults that is Romantic Or Sexual and Adult or Minor Attracted Romantically or Sexually to the Other. The plural of Amarso is Amarsi. Both terms are closely related to the verb “to love”. In Spanish, amar is the infinitive of the verb “to love”, whilst amaros means “to love one another” in Spanish. Amarsi has the same meaning in Italian. See Puellula.