Euphemistic & Semantic Coercion: It's Child Rapist not "Pedophile"

I’ve been reflecting on how you barely hear anyone say child rapist; instead there’s a plethora of terms created to avoid ever having to say the words.

I recently learned from content creator Karen Davis (Substack) about yet another new term created, called “Virtuous Pedophiles.” Upon hearing the term, I felt simultaneous disgust and “you can’t make this shit up” at the utter fucking bullshit that some men come up with to justify their depravity. “Virtuous pedophile” is the pinnacle of semantic (euphemistic) coercion. Child rapists and child rapist apologists/celebrationists have been trying to rebrand and legitimize their ideologies for centuries. They use the cloak of metaphysics (religion), sex stereotypes, child adultification, mental illness, and more recently sexual orientation to mainstream their exploitation.

Male supremacy positions children, specifically girls, as the property of society and families to subjugate and violate without consequence. Male leaders play a balancing act to hide child sexual exploitation, “condemning” child rape while creating industries dependent on it. Renaming child rapists to “minor-attracted person”, “pedophiles”, etc., and child rape to “statutory rape” and “molestation” help sew the seeds of cognitive dissonance.

These euphemisms help to coax people into pitying child rapists and downplaying the gravity of their violence, beliefs, and entitlement. It keeps our eyes off the victims and coerces us into philosophical debates. The latest branding of these men as “virtuous” is what happens when male supremacy’s anti-female violence is allowed to grow unchecked. They use faulty science, law, and culture to silence the true harm that the victims of their violence try so hard to share. I’m one of those victims and I’m so tired of being told that people care about children, cause the proof shows they fucking don’t. I’m so tired of men like Michael Bailey having the power to shape these conversations, while victims risk everything to speak and pay a heavy price for it (including their testimony being sexualized). I’m so tired of female sexual beliefs being colonized and corrupted by such men. Because of such men, my sexual road map was affected for life. Stories like mine won’t make it to the scientific journals, but some dumbass calls himself an expert and he’s published without a question...because he said so? They keep trying to exhaust us so we tire of fighting back, and I’m scared of how well this tactic works.

📚 Resources to Explore:

• virped.org (please be careful before visiting this site - it is really upsetting!!!)

• ”SELLING PEDOPHILIA ON TIKTOK! Meet Dr. Doe...”

• ”MICHAEL BAILEY, PEDOS AND DOWN SYNDROME”

• Karen Davis on Substack @blackchickrocks

  
  

✍️ Journal Reflection Prompts:

NOTE: If you deal with PTSD/C-PTSD these questions can be agitating. If you feel upset just by reading the questions, step back and revisit them with the help of a trained therapist.

Open Path Psychotherapy Collective (US-Based)

• How can you challenge semantic (euphemistic) coercion in your own life?

• How does female objectification and exploitation show up in your sexual fantasies? Do you have thoughts and feelings that disturb you and don’t know why? Have you heard of the concept of “trauma reenactment””

• How has the normalization of child sexualization impacted your worldview and your personal sexual road map?

• Would talking to a therapist about the normalization of child sexualization and it’s impact help you?