RE: Jared Fogle & Subway
November 22, 2015 at 6:38 am
(This post was last modified: November 22, 2015 at 6:41 am by DespondentFishdeathMasochismo.)
I agree with you aractus about the stigmatization of pedophiles. I was talking with my dad and my cousin at dinner at my uncle's birthday party about this issue. They were under the impression that Jared Fogle is mentally ill. I contested that people are attracted to all sorts of things, and children just happens to be what Fogle is attracted to. What they contested was that once someone starts touching kids then that's when it becomes a matter of mental illness. I guess if they lack empathy towards kids then that could seem like it's a reason to say they lack some sort of basic fundamental trait. We seemed to reach the conclusion that it becomes a "mental illness" once you actually lay a hand on a kid. I don't really know why we're calling it a mental illness though.
Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to defend pedophilia. I don't think touching kids is right and I think it's very damaging to them, we've probably all heard the reports of the psychological damage to the kids. I also am of the opinion that someone's sexuality isn't something you can dictate, so I'm sort of lost for the reason why pedophilia is considered a mental illness. I'm not really a doctor, so I don't know how I can come to that conclusion, it seems pretty half baked. Then there's the other problem that people generally make pedophiles out to be the absolute scum of the earth. While it's true that touching kids is a horrendous act, I wouldn't hate someone for being a pedophile. I would probably be friends with someone if they were into kids but kept it to themselves.
All that being said, I do think the Jarod Fogle issue is very fucked up. I don't necessarily think it's terrible that supposedly the minors he was having sex with were like what, 17? 16? I mean, that's a bit fucked up for a guy is age, but still that age range doesn't seem terrible for the kids involved. I think there's probably people of that age who are capable of consenting and knowing exactly what they're doing. I heard that he was involved in helping his friend in the filming of child pornography. I don't really know much about that issue so I can't really comment. Anyways I like to look at a situation from a lot of different angles, which are sometimes more taboo to look at. Doing anything with much younger kids is not right.
Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to defend pedophilia. I don't think touching kids is right and I think it's very damaging to them, we've probably all heard the reports of the psychological damage to the kids. I also am of the opinion that someone's sexuality isn't something you can dictate, so I'm sort of lost for the reason why pedophilia is considered a mental illness. I'm not really a doctor, so I don't know how I can come to that conclusion, it seems pretty half baked. Then there's the other problem that people generally make pedophiles out to be the absolute scum of the earth. While it's true that touching kids is a horrendous act, I wouldn't hate someone for being a pedophile. I would probably be friends with someone if they were into kids but kept it to themselves.
All that being said, I do think the Jarod Fogle issue is very fucked up. I don't necessarily think it's terrible that supposedly the minors he was having sex with were like what, 17? 16? I mean, that's a bit fucked up for a guy is age, but still that age range doesn't seem terrible for the kids involved. I think there's probably people of that age who are capable of consenting and knowing exactly what they're doing. I heard that he was involved in helping his friend in the filming of child pornography. I don't really know much about that issue so I can't really comment. Anyways I like to look at a situation from a lot of different angles, which are sometimes more taboo to look at. Doing anything with much younger kids is not right.
