Re: The Pedosmile: Do Pedophiles Have A Certain Smile?

So, you're a decent person who got caught doing something which is harmless but which is socially unacceptable. You try to put on your best face and let everyone know that you're really a decent guy, but you're scared because you know that there is a lot of irrational hatred directed at you. What is the result? A sort of creepy smile: the combination of a forced smile with deep sadness and anxiety.

Note that most of the "pedosmiles" are mug shots, taken when the victim of discrimination has just been made the object of humiliation. It is probably just that simple.

The author of this hit piece incidentally follows the traditional pattern, by simply asserting that adult-child sexuality is bad without providing any actual evidence. When one is reduced to argument by assertion, perhaps one ought to reconsider whether they really have an argument. She also confuses pedophilia (a sexual orientation) with child molestation (the act of bothering a child), and confuses consensual acts with rape. It's par for the course, but it bears repeating that all these assumptions are wrong.

The author's interest in Genetic Epidemiology is to be commended - it is an important and intriguing field and there is much we do not yet know - but this apparent inability to rise above even the simplest of cognitive distortions does not augur well for her future research. I sincerely hope that I can be disproved on this account.