I'll do my best to give you answers based upon my perspective and experience (and yup, I do remember you from back in the day, I remember you also used to be a vol on Lifeline--welcome back!).
Anyway, I've mentioned in another post that I seem to end up with MAA partners whether I intend to or not. I dated someone I met off here for two years when I was first in college, and the last guy I was with turned out to be an MAA, too. Now, especially since I've actualized having an attraction to younger-than-teen girls, I've found myself happier and able to be more honest in relationships where this was a shared interest, not a guarded secret.
I almost always date younger women in the age bracket of 18-mid-20s, since (as you may remember) I'm a hebephile, but cannot legally date adolescent girls (AGs) who are in my prime age preference. However, I have yet to meet a younger woman who also happens to be a GLer who was interested in me as more than a friend as much as I have always wanted to, so I do have a lot of experience in dating younger women who are not themselves GLers, so I will base my answers to you on that perspective.
Well, just above, I said "last guy." Well, when I first came back to this board, he was "current guy." Had to break that up in September because even people you're sexually compatible with can be jerk wads who don't know how to treat a partner with respect or empathy. Grr...
I fully sympathize, as I have walked in those shoes too many times to count myself :-(
Anyway, I've started dating again. I'm in the kink/BDSM/age play/ABDL communities where I am, but I don't limit my dating pool to those in the public scene. I also use online dating sites (don't like random pick-ups), partially because they can give you a sense of sexual compatibility, which is really important to me given my lifestyle.
By coincidence, the girl I loved the most in my life was in the BDSM community, and though she wasn't into young girls herself, she used to love age play with me. So I do think the BDSM girls are cool, and it's good you are getting back in the swing of things (pun intended, btw).
I'm always pretty up front with being into age play. I'm a "little" and enjoy letting the LG part of me out with guys as well as through "role play" in more sexual exchanges. When it comes to guys, I'm most attracted to ones at least somewhat older than me that can put off a nurturing and paternal--though perverted--air with me. In the scene, we call that "Daddy energy." But, when it comes to females, I'm most sexually attracted to those my age, girl-ish cute, or younger...or much younger.
You make me want to write a "daddy energy" script lol (The girl I used to be with in the BDSM community never used that term, so I find it interesting to learn it...)
Most guys, or at least a decent number of my own sampling, are cool with or turned on by the age play stuff.
I have effectively no doubt that numerous guys--who ordinarily identify as teleiophiles (assuming they know what the word means, of course)--find it very refreshing to age play, so they can act out their secret fantasies of being with a young girl. It's not a rare fantasy, as the stats Baldur pointed out elsewhere in this thread make clear.
In fact, age play and ABDL communities are hoarse from having to yell, "AGE PLAY ISN'T ABOUT PEDOPHILIA AND WE AREN'T PROMOTING CHILD MOLESTATION" to gain acceptance in the larger kink communities.
Mmm-hmmm. Include the disclaimer, and you can sell any type of product you want. That is sort of like a person pretending to be a corpse during their sexual role play on a frequent basis and then constantly exclaiming, "CORPSE PLAY IS NOT INTENDED TO PROMOTE NECROPHILIA OR THE DEFILEMENT OF DEAD BODIES."
Age play (playing with fantasized age disparities in sexual or non-sexual situations) has only started to become acceptable in most kink scenes, and I *still* squick some people out, but anyway.
"Squick"? My vocabulary has officially been added to again! Yay!!
Anyway, I'm sure half the people you "squick" have age-based fantasies, but they only pretend to be "squicked out" to come off as politically correct or morally "upright" in public...or in their own eyes, if no one but you or them are around at the time. Remember this unfortunate fact: Everyone likes to moralize, even if they happen to be a cold-blooded killer ("I may have murdered dozens of innocent people, but at least I never kissed no 13-year-old girl!"), or frequently boast about being open-minded to everyone ("I may be open-minded, but this is where I draw the line...!").
Most guys act like it's a relief when I'll say something like, a girl younger than me is hot, or how sexy Kristen Dunst was in Interview with the Vampire or Emma Watson was, even early on in the series. Fantasy girls we've seen grow up on TV or in the movies. Cause, really, most hetero guys can find girls with secondary sexual characteristics attractive.
It makes absolutely no logical sense from an evolutionary standpoint for them to claim otherwise. If they do, they are most likely pandering to cultural attitudes.
Do you think they'd be as accepting of a girl who, say, liked Hayden Panettiere on Law and Order: SVU better in 2001 than in 2005? All guys love a bisexual girlfriend that they can check out girls with at the mall, but what about checking out tweens?
I must confess to being among those ranks :-P
I guess this is a question for those of you who are attracted to adult women as well as children, but most men could probably answer.
Since I'm a hebephile who is most def attracted to younger adult women, I can indeed try to answer your questions.
Do most adult men have *some* attraction to pre-teen children? I know it's INCREDIBLY stigmatized when males confesses this kind of thing to women, most of whom are trained to consider any male who finds someone under the age of 18 attractive to be a SEXUAL PREDATOR. Are men as programmed to find these kind of attractions UNACCEPTABLE and get all "won't someone PLEASE think of the children!" about it? What are men like about this issue when women aren't around to hear it?
While once again referring to the stats Baldur pointed out in this thread, I think it's helpful to mention that most people at least occasionally find someone attractive outside of their usual preferred age group. I think this includes pre-pubescents as well as adolescents. When it comes to tweens, I tend to like them often, because many of them are physically and emotionally developed enough to resemble teens. Not only that, but girls seem to be hitting estrus at earlier ages these days, which is further blurring the line between "child" and "young adult" in many cases.
I always thought it was sad that most of the people I knew here could never tell a partner because of the way society is right now. Be understood, and how important it is to feel understood, which I know is part of why this board is here. I'm just wondering about my odds of being able to be really honest with guys I'm with in the future.
Since I found out that I can be honest with many younger women who truly have strong feelings and respect for me about my age preferences--provided they have had the time to develop such feelings and respect for me--I think it's safe to surmise that you will indeed find the equivalent guys in the future. My advice from personal experience is to just get to know them for maybe, say, a few months before you drop that "bomb" on them.