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Arch Sex Behav (2017) 46:322 DOI 10.1007/s10508-016-0799-y
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1007/s10508-016-0799-y&domain=pdf
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The Puzzle of Male Chronophilias
Michael C. Seto1
Received: 16 December 2015 / Revised: 15 June 2016 / Accepted: 22 June 2016 / Published online: 22 August 2016 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
Abstract In this article, I return to the idea that pedophilia, a sexual interest in prepubescent children, can be considered a sexual orientation for age, in conjunction with the much more widely acknowledged and discussed sexual orientation for gender. Here, I broaden the scope to consider other chronophilias, referring to paraphilias for age/maturity categories other than young sexually mature adults. The puzzle of chronophilias includesquestionsabout etiology andcourse,how chronophilias are related to each other, and what they can tell us about how human(male)sexualityisorganized.Inthisarticle,Ibrieyreview researchonnepiophilia(infant/toddlers),pedophilia(prepubescent children), hebephilia (pubescent children), ephebophilia (post-pubescent, sexually maturing adolescents), teleiophilia (young sexually mature adults, typically 20s and 30s), mesophilia (middle-agedadults,typically40sand50s),andgerontophilia(elderly adults, typically 60s and older) in the context of a multidimensionalsexualorientationsframework.Relevantresearch,limitations, and testable hypotheses for future work are identied.
Keywords Age preferences Chronophilias Paraphilias
Sexual orientation
Introduction
Sexual orientation is usually used to refer to ones attractions to individuals of the opposite and/or same sex, or both. Indeed, the American Psychological Association specically denes sexual orientation in this way (http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/sexuality-definitions.pdf
Web End =http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/
http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/sexuality-definitions.pdf
Web End =sexuality-denitions.pdf ), which is also consistent with the Oxford Dictionary denition of the term as well as common usage (https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/sexual-orientation
Web End =https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/denition/english/ https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/sexual-orientation
Web End =sexual-orientation ):
Sexual orientationreferstothe sexof those towhom one is sexuallyandromanticallyattracted.Categoriesofsexualorientation typically have included attraction to members of onesownsex(gaymenorlesbians),attractiontomembers of the other sex (heterosexuals), and attraction to members of both sexes (bisexuals) (American Psychological Association, 2011).
In this article, I more broadly dene sexual orientation as a stable tendency to preferentially orientin terms of attention, interest, attraction,and genital arousalto particular classes of sexual stimuli (see also Chivers, 2015; Sell, 1997). If we accept this broader denition, then we can imagine that individuals actuallyhavemultiplesexualorientationsratherthanasinglesexual orientation, corresponding to their sexual preferences along a varietyofdifferentdimensions,includingage.Thisarticlefocuses onvariationacrossagecategories.1Money(1986)coinedtheterm chronophilia to refer to paraphilias (variations from teleiophilia, the species-typical age orientation to sexually mature adults) regarding different age (maturity) categories; thus, this article focusesonthe puzzlesposedbychronophilias, includingquestions about etiology and course, how chronophilias are related to each...