Could we also not call people who are sexually attracted to 16 year olds pedophiles, please?
A pedophile in medical/psychiatric terms is someone who is sexually attracted to prepubescent kids, not to 16 year olds who in any biological sense are adults, if not in a mental sense.
Child marriages also happen with children younger than puberty. Not as commonly now, thanks to newer laws, but it still happens. Statutory rape is also still a thing, and that applies in these situations (obviously this is not a discussion about children of the same age marrying, which is a different issue). It may not be straight-up pedophilia, but taking advantage of a minor, whether it be a prepubescent one or not, is disgusting, and the trauma associated with child marriage is real. Neither it nor "normal" pedophilia is acceptable, and pretending one is less worse than the other, as if these things can be rated, is really just awful. A traumatized and abused young adult or child is a traumatized and abused young adult who will be dealing with the abuse and fallout for the rest of their life. In the case of children married to adults, it's possible they may have to endure the rape and abuse for years before they have the means and self-esteem to escape, if they are able to.
So, yeah, maybe young women being married off after their breasts grow in aren't targets of pedophilia in the strictest "medical" sense, but it's still disgusting, and trying to excuse it in any way is just, well, like I said earlier: 🤮🤮🤮
