Pedophile subplot
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Smokey_T — 9 years ago(January 24, 2017 02:09 PM)
Without any evidence to the contrary I'll assume he didn't want to bang his great aunt, and for all we know the reason his wife and daughter left was his sexual abuse of his daughter. Incest/pedophilia same thing when all you want is young girls, or the fantasy of it, be they his daughter or not. You are arguing that he wants to relive a specific incest, but that just seems to be the one he enjoyed for the longest time and which was denied to him. The fact she was his daughter doesn't even seem to be important.
He's @#$#%# in the head, and not a good guy. End of story, until some psychiatrist pipes up and blows the entire thing out of the water for being grossly inaccurate and/or silly. -
Stovepipe99 — 9 years ago(January 24, 2017 02:27 PM)
by definition, everything is not automatically pedophilia simply because it involves someone underage
I mostly agree. But when you're talking about a middle-aged man, I don't think that a girl being 14 or 15 takes you out of child territory and immediately into adult/normal sexuality territory.
I think that there is a grey area between when someone is truly a child and when they are truly adult who is fully capable of consent. Puberty isn't merely physicalthere are changes to the brain and to a person's emotional state.
There isn't a magical moment where you suddenly cease being a child. And, by extension, a man's attraction to a girl doesn't magically stop being pedophilia just because she turns a certain age. And if someone watched the movie and had the impression that Howard had been possibly molesting his daughter for a while (I don't think this, but I see why someone might), it wouldn't be out of line to call him a pedophile. There are people who want to say that it's totally normal for men to be attracted to 16 year old girls. I understand that on a physical level, but many if not most 16 year olds are incredibly emotionally immature. They might have bodies that have gone through puberty, and they might have the legal right to consent to sex, but there's something icky to me about the idea of an adult man wanting to have sex with a teenage girl (or maybe I should say actually having sex with a teen, because I think that wanting to is harmless fantasy).
Howard doesn't want Michelle playing with dolls, wearing distinctly child-like clothing, or doing any other behaviors that speak to being a young child. I think that his behavior toward Michelle is controlling, unhealthy, and more than a bit delusional, but the movie never comes outright to say that there is any sexual element. -
Goodbye_from_Fox_In_A_Box — 9 years ago(January 29, 2017 02:19 PM)
There are different levels of interest in children.
Hebephilia is the strong and persistent adult sexual interest in pubescent (early adolescent) individuals, typically ages 1114 (see the Tanner stage). It differs from
ephebophilia, which is the strong and persistent sexual interest to those in later adolescence, approximately 1519 years old,
and from pedophilia,[2] which is the primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children.
If he had an attraction to his daughter/the missing girl/Michelle, it would most likely fall into what I bolded. Paedos are for prepubescent children.
I don't want the world. I just want your half. -
civspan — 9 years ago(December 25, 2016 03:26 PM)
Must be nice to be able to make up your own definitions. I guess I'm the president of the united states then.
I feel like some people should read a god damned book before they open their metaphorical mouths. -
gabypanama — 9 years ago(December 22, 2016 11:33 AM)
He never molested or attacked her sexually in any way; that specific scene, as well as calling the other victim "his daughter" that his mental problem was "adopting" by force women and convincing himself that where "daughters/girls" that needed help.
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Smokey_T — 9 years ago(January 24, 2017 02:36 PM)
Potentially not sexually.
It's possible he just wanted to be alpha, and dad possible.
It's also possible that he abused his daughter, was discovered by mum and they fled, that he abused the other girl, and disposed of her body, and would have forced himself upon this girl too, once he gave up on the nice dad facade. -
Luke_was_a_terrorist — 9 years ago(December 28, 2016 09:38 AM)
What pedophile subplot?. he didn't wanna bang Michelle, he just wanted to keep her as his daughter.
I think you're the opposite of paranoid, I think you walk around with the delusion people like you.