The Problem With The Word Pedophile
Feb. 10th, 2026 10:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unspeakablehorrorThe 'phile' suffix is such an awful choice for a word describing child sexual exploitation and abuse. For anyone not already aware, 'phile' derives from the greek 'philos' meaning 'beloved' and the related suffix is used in English to denote a love of something or someone. I really think it's one of the most insidious things our psychiatric institions have done to imply that child sexual abuse is done out of a 'love' for children (the term pedophile is a psychiatric term and it's still listed in the DSM today).
And I'm personally not someone who thinks we should always prioritize changes in language since I think for a number of reasons, that can unfortunately be counterproductive at times. Sometimes it takes the focus too much away from the actual concrete changes we want to make. But I do think there's value in thinking about the implications that words have and understanding when there may be valid reasons for people to dislike certain words and choose to avoid them.
And I'm personally not someone who thinks we should always prioritize changes in language since I think for a number of reasons, that can unfortunately be counterproductive at times. Sometimes it takes the focus too much away from the actual concrete changes we want to make. But I do think there's value in thinking about the implications that words have and understanding when there may be valid reasons for people to dislike certain words and choose to avoid them.