Minor Attracted Person

Part of NewgonWiki's series on minor-attracted identities
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Category: Minor-attracted people
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A Minor-Attracted Person (MAP) is someone who experiences sexual or romantic attractions towards people under the local age of consent. Unlike the term Minor-Attracted Adult, minors themselves, may be classified as such. Whilst attraction to minors is probably very common (see research), explicit identification as an MAP is generally assumed to derive from a preferential attraction rather than any attraction to minors. In the present climate, this act of self-identification can been seen as a political act. As a result, MAPs are sometimes incorrectly assumed to be disclosing pedophilia, which is just one form of Minor Attraction - as will be explained later.

Subtypes

Whilst there is not full approval of medical "classification bingo" (among MAPs), many of the following long-standing psychiatric terms have been absorbed into the MAP chronophilia lexicon:

• Nepiophilia - Attraction to Infants 0-3
• Pedophilia - Attraction to Prepubescents 4-11/12
• Hebephilia - Attraction to early Pubescents 11-14
• Ephebophilia - Attraction later or post pubescent youth, usually between 15-19

Expressions such as Boylove and Girllove are also common, particularly within the peer support community. Nowadays, these terms tend not to be used in outward-facing activism, due to their romantic overtones.

Origin

The term originates from the late 00s era, was popularized in 2007 by Newgon.com (our predecessor), B4U-Act and other blogs such as ATC/ANU. There is one example of the term being suggested on BoyChat as early as 2001, but no further examples have been found in the intervening period, suggesting it did not catch on.

2001 as ground zero, but no takeoff

The Internet Archive reveals mentions of the term "Minor Attracted Person/MAP" and "Minor Attracted Homosexual" as early as 2001, although the sparsity of evidence between that date and 2007 would appear to suggest that neither of those terms caught on in an environment where youth MAP online activism (i.e. early second-wave MAP activism) was virtually nonexistent. It has been claimed that the suggestion of "MAP" might have been put forward at an even earlier date by BoyChat user GhostWriter.

2007 - the crucial year - ANU

As noted by B4U-Act in their Twitter thread (soon to be added to the gallery), in 2007, they and some MAPs and academic authors had been using the similar term "Minor Attracted Adult" for some time. Peterson's original mention was in 1998, and B4U-Act were founded in 2003. In 2007, as the burgeoning MAP blogging movement got underway (primarily on blogger.com/blogspot), there were frequent uses of the term "minor attraction" dating back even to 2006. The first examples of "Minor Attracted Person" we can find were on ATC/ANU in Feb 2007, with the blog-author also submitting the term to Slashdot, Scienceblogs, and linking back. This slow pivot thru "Minor Attracted Adult", to the generic "minor attraction" was thought to be due to these bloggers' relatively young age (see gallery). For example, the most active authors on ANU were in their late teens and early 20s, having experienced an attraction to minors before adulthood. In addition to this, the first authors to use the term "Minor Attracted Person" (BLueRibbon and Daniel Lievre) were pedophilic and ephebophilic respectively (see gallery), so the more inclusive term suited their writings. On Jun 8, 2007, Newgon.com was founded (at that time a small website started by two censored bloggers, Daniel Lievre/Llort and Jillium - also of ANU), and the new term was visible in its ethos (belatedly captured on its blog arm, dated Jul 17). B4U-Act began to use the term on June 22, 2007, incorporating it into their own lexicon. It is likely they were aware of its previous use by MAPs, but due to the presence of mental health professionals in this organization, the language would have been assessed first to establish that it was value neutral. The late Michael Melsheimer, a MAP and founding member of B4U-Act is a possible catalyst for this terminological fork, but his relationship with the authors of ANU is unknown at this point. Our predecessor, Newgon.com, created the first known dedicated article (this very article) to define Minor Attracted People in September 2008 (see history).

2009 onward - the MAP Flag

In order to identify themselves, MAPs have created a MAP Flag, which garnered widespread social media attention in Jul-Aug 2018, along with the term "Minor Attracted Person". Rumors had spread that MAPs intended to use the flag at pride, and these fears resurfaced the following summer. The origins of the final flag (we will upload one as soon as possible) are unknown, with anything from Tumblr users to 4Chan trolls suggested by various "fact checkers". However, the concept appears to go back at least to a 2009 competition, again on Newgon.com (our predecessor) - in which various proposals were solicited for a symbol. As can be seen, the MAP gradient flag predecessor has a file date of 8 Jul, 2009, and had most probably been submitted through the website's forum (by who, might become clearer when we re-enable it).

Erroneous claims of novelty and trolling by "fact checkers"

Mainstream "Fact Checkers" at Snopes.com and AFP Fact Check have erroneously claimed that the MAP Flag concept "originated with a troll experiment on Tumblr". They cite an incidence of a modern MAP Flag as evidence of said experiment, but it appears from the use of MAP terms such as "anti", that its anonymous creator is sympathetic to the MAP/NOMAP cause. The reason behind these fact checker's dismissive bias is clearly the (again, erroneous) fear that MAPs are attempting to rejoin the LGBTQ+ community after years of ostracism. The fact checkers are trying to disprove this already ludicrous thesis, to protect the LGBTQ+ movement. They also deny that Minor Attracted People coined their own term of identification, which as this article demonstrates, is an ahistorical act of erasure. The net effect of this often-repeated falsehood is unsurprisingly, to turn a genuine 2nd wave MAP activism movement into yet another pathological "medico-legal classification" under the thumb of CSA prevention professionals and therapists.