Just because someone has a different opinion to you, doesn’t mean that they started out at your opinion and then had to perform mental gymnastics to arrive at that different opinion. For me, I started at the opinion “there’s nothing homophobic here” and then had to perform the mental gymnastics to understand why you…

Except that he was never accused of being gay or gay-like (and quite frankly if you automatically associate anal sex with gay men, that’s drifting towards dodgy territory in itself), and using a common saying like “the lady doth protest too much” is not misgendering... especially when it’s an incredibly appropriate…

...So, your default response to someone politely saying that they can see your point, but disagree with you, is to jump straight to the insults? Because I have to say, that’s not really the best way to strengthen your case or turn people round to your point of view.

I can see how you’d possibly conflate “the lady doth protest too much” and his liking for (presumably heterosexual) anal sex as a homophobic whole, but the article itself also pointed out that such sex is perfectly normal. So... I’m very much inclined to believe that any such connotations were most likely completely…

Isn’t “the lady doth protest too much” a pretty standard saying, without any automatically homophobic connotations even if said regarding a man?

If anything, my mother hitting me would just cause me to become more stubborn, resentful, and rebellious. I mean even if it “works” it’s not an excusable way to control your child’s behaviour, but for me at least it always had the opposite effect. To the point where my mother told social services they’d have to remove…

More of a puck game usually, isn’t it?

At least here in Britain, both parties move... often in the same direction... then you have that awkwardness of negotiating via hand gestures and small questioning vocalisations who goes where, and both people walk off feeling a bit silly for causing such confusion.

And that “irony” is a nonsense concept invented by ivory tower academics.

Quite possibly! I haven’t actually read the book to be honest. It’s a topic I have a somewhat strong aversion to, so I’m not really keen on doing so.

Nah, I’m just a very, very pedantic woman at times, especially about language. I’d say “think more slightly cranky English teacher” but in this context that also kind of takes on slightly dodgy overtones!

I would dispute that I’m aligning myself with such people. I mean, we don’t call mugging people “burglary”, because that’s the wrong word... mugging simply is not burglary... but it doesn’t mean we condone either behaviour. Or to completely Godwin the debate, I am against cigarette smoking, as was Hitler, but that…

I can’t say I’ve read the book, but if Humbert is attracted to prepubescent girls as well (or even primarily) then yes, he’s a paedophile. Generally though, someone going after 12 year olds (or 11-14 year olds in general - younger pubescents) is a hebephile. Mindymoo said that his preferred age range was 10-14 so that…

She’s a big girl now!

It is, alas, a far too underutilised word! I just want to bang my head against a wall every time I see a tabloid headline like “Paedophile grooms 12 year old girl”... I’d assume it’s because it’s lesser known and so it doesn’t have the same shocking impact as the word “paedophile”. Also this isn’t entirely related,…

Just to nitpick, but it’s about the mind of a disgusting hebephile. I realise the word p(a)edophile is commonly used in a far broader fashion than its proper definition (one who is attracted to prepubescent children, hebephiles instead being attracted to young pubescent children at around 11-14 like the 12 year old…

He is the American Jimmy Savile, in so many ways. I’m talking more about his shameless self-promotion, narcissism, and “I can get away with absolutely anything” attitude than what Savile is now most famous for, but his comments about his daughter generate from me a similar shudder of revulsion as, well, anything…

I thought polar bears could do anything! Arctic powers, activate!

I have no idea how this law has been applied in practice (or even if it has), that’s just officially the government’s position. Honestly I know very little about El Salvador, I just googled to find that information. But it certainly doesn’t sound like the most fun place to live. One thing that makes me wonder the same…