Very interesting

I think you make some brilliant points in this post Seth.

Sexuality is, in itself, a very natural, simple and sensual part of life. In many respects it is like an aspect of life in which a person can return to the sensuality and naturalness of childhood.

But that is something people distrust and want to shrink away from, and more and more as time goes on. They want to 'complicate' sexuality - increasingly. They analyse anything and everything, and then analyse the analysis; labels get attached to every shade of nuance.

There is an odd dichotomy between so-called modern sexual 'freedom' and the vehemence with which various people seem horrified by the sexuality of children. It's there in the language - "adult content" as a label is more or less synonymous now with "sexual content" - and in the horribly sad way in which adults who work with kids (and particularly men) are made to feel increasingly wary of expressing *any* kind of affection or care for children: even a comforting hand on the shoulder.

This is strangely 'inhuman'. It is very natural to feel love and affection for kids and to want to express it. And for those of us who are alive to it, the beauty in a child (both in character and appearance) can easily and naturally evoke strongly romantic and sensual feelings. Even those who don't identify as child lovers unconsciously slip back into, and habitually use, the language and imagery of childhood in romantic contexts: in love songs, terms of endearment and so forth.

I think you are absolutely right to point out that it's the increasing 'distance' of the 'sophisticated' modern adult from the naturalness of the child that explains much of this oddity and contradiction. And along with that 'post-modern muddle' that you mention, goes the cynicism of our society. Alongside the over-complication of sexuality is the way in which it has often been 'de-romanticised', cut off from its affectional and emotional contexts; one might even say de-naturalised (and thus 'de-child-ified'!)

People who are caught up in this may talk very encouragingly and positively about sexual freedom, individual choice, and so on - but they will stop short and back-pedal when it comes to the sexual nature and the sexual liberty of children. "Sex", in their conception of it, may still be fun, but it's surrounded by self-centered motives; fine so long as you're imbued with the wariness, tough-mindedness and cynicism that adulthood can offer, but a sea fraught with dangers for unsuspecting children who will simply be used, manipulated and cast aside without a second thought if they are permitted to dip so much as a toe in the water.

So I tend to feel that people have often become way too cynical about sexuality, in a society which is becoming colder, more withdrawn, more distrusting generally. The irony, I suppose, is actually that child-lovers - the very people who would wish to have relationships with children - seem to have a far warmer, far more affectional understanding of sexuality themselves. And that is not surprising, because those are the very kind of things which we love in little girls, isn't it: their naturalness, their cuteness and warmth, their genuineness and sweetness, and all reflected in their breath-taking physical beauty.

I suppose we are the romantics of the modern or post-modern era:) And that is what both draws us to little girls and why we 'connect' with them so well relationally.

You were talking about how the attempt to distance children from sexuality affects them, how this in a sense invests them with a certain kind of sexual 'power', in a context in which they are not socially or legally empowered to use it. I guess the most obvious result is that, the more absurd the repression of child sexuality becomes, and the more ridiculous these dichotomies and contradictions become, the more that children will begin to notice, and to become more and more aware. For some - the more sensitive, intelligent and thoughtful - it will be something they remember into adulthood and may help to bring some enlightenment in future generations.