Is Bill Maher defending pedophilia here?

[Citrus]

50. Technicalities

Yes, it's true that for mental health professionals, pedophilia is defined as sexual attraction/action with prepubescent children. In most cases I defend technical meanings and definitions, but language is organic and fluid and not everyone can be expected to know the finer points of the DSM. So it's also true that it's okay for non-professionals to use the term colloquially.

But, and it's a big but!, even diagnosis is fluid. Someone who only pursues 14-year-olds who meet certain criteria can be diagnosed as a pedophile. No diagnosis, particularly in mental health is static and inflexible. It's helpful to know the guidelines, but it's also helpful to know they're guidelines, not absolutes. (Although insurance companies and the like would disagree.)

In this discussion, it's about an episode that played in 1998. I don't know what Maher's real opinion is, and neither does anyone else. He's a provocateur who loves stirring the shit pot. This makes him something of a joke, which he doesn't see about himself. Once in a while he makes good points, but when you (Maher) seem to hate everyone and everything, it all gets lost in a fog of bullshit. He's a mean-spirited jerk who gets it right only occasionally.

It's also important to remember, as already mentioned, that Letourneau's victim was 12 when the sexual contact began. He was in 6th grade, and she had also taught him when he was in 2nd grade. Is/was she a pedophile? We don't know. We don't know if there were other victims because boys seldom come forward. We don't know if she has continued the behavior. All we can go on is public information and assume that he was her only victim. But let's be honest...someone who is sexually attracted to children, regardless of age, has a whole host of problems that make her/him dangerous.

Yes, women can be pedophiles. Yes, males can be raped.

(An aside about Maher: I know someone who dated him long enough to get caught up in his charisma and then to realize what a total ass he was. She describes him as "a very small man with very small views and, essentially, a Napoleon complex". She's a professional comedian with a solid career in stand-up.)