Re: what I learned researching pedophilia.

Several of these things developed a little earlier than you cite, including the modern notion of childhood. Many of these were consequences of French enlightenment thinkers, most notably Jean-Jacques Rousseau whose denial of the doctrine of original sin naturally led to the concept of childhood innocence.

But don't be fooled. Rousseau was no friend of children. He abandoned his own.

If we take the doctrine of original sin seriously but not literally, it is just the notion that human beings have a human nature which is not all sunshine and lollipops. It is the idea that we are naturally inclined towards behaviors which are not always beneficial to ourselves and others. When we recognize this we can train children to somewhat moderate their behavior for the benefits of society and themselves. When we do not recognize this the results have been millions upon millions of people murdered by their own governments in the pursuit of utopia.

Pedophilia is indeed as old as civilization, and there is a compelling case to be made that civilization would be impossible without the selection for childlike traits that separates humans from the other apes. That is, neotenous traits such as reduced levels of aggression in adulthood and plasticity of mind appear to be foundational to human civilization.

Claims of patriarchy in Victorian culture are frankly laughable. Feminism originated in England starting in the 1790s, though English women were already known for their hold over English men by other Europeans, and the grip of European women over European men was commented upon by non-Europeans centuries before that. Meanwhile, English soldiers in America during our war for independence were astonished at the independence of American women at that time. So whenever you read about "patriarchy" in America or England just remember that these were the most extreme outliers favoring female independence among all recorded civilizations, and among all cultures that could claim more than a handful of small villages. That is to say that these claims about oppression by a patriarchal system are ideological and have little relation to reality.

Yes, in every civilization men take on certain types of responsibilities and women take on others, but this seems to be almost exclusively byproducts of the natural and evolved differences between men and women, whose abilities and natural inclinations complement each other for the benefit of the species. Of course males and females can and should treat each other well, but the notion that there was some sort of masculine conspiracy to subjugate women is absurd, especially in the Anglo-American context where the reality has been closer to the opposite of that.