Poll: Could Edward Cullen be considered a pedophile or a creep?

[Sirtety]

Yes. To both. I don't feel like there needs to be a justification in this post because so much of the Twilight saga was so creepy when it came to establishing relationships. So instead I'll just finish this post by saying, Batman. Because everything is better with Batman.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

...You're just realizing this now? I personally think he's both... but that's just me.

 

[Flamezdudes]

Paedophilia is the attraction to pre-pubescent children. Bella is not one, therfore Edward is not a paedophile.

A similar discussion like this happened with the film Let The Right One In when some argued that Eli was a paedophile since Eli is a 200 year old vampire with a 12 year boy (Oskar), however I argued that Eli is still a child in both body and mind but has just been frozen in time and not developed at all.

 

[Agayek]

Is he a pedo? No.

Is he creepy as all get out? Yes.

The age gap itself is not a terribly big concern, simply by virtue of the fact that if he really is over 100, it's not physically possible for him to find someone his own age.

The fact that he's a grown man dating a high school is all different kinds of creepy though.

 

[DarthSka]

A pedophile is technically applied to humans and since he's a vampire, you can't really hold him to that definition. Now Aang on the other hand.....

 

[maninahat]

I'm going to say hot. And not just to be contrarian, I did take the time to think it through.

Firstly - when I was 17, I fancied 17 year old girls. I often worried whether that meant I'd still fancy them by the time I was 25, but luckily, age changes your perspective on younger people, and now I see teenagers as annoying, ugly children. Cullen, on the other hand, whilst being 100 years old, hasn't physically matured beyond 17 and might not have aged mentally either. It's more like he's frozen at that age, rather than actually getting any older, so I rule out the paedophile factor fairly quickly. Besides - if we go by the logic that the age gap makes him a paedo, every vampire would be too; Dracula has centuries on all the women he dates, and I certainly don't see him chasing down septuagenarians. I do think Cullen is an idiot for doing nothing but going to school for 100 years, or for not have sex at any point throughout that time period (which feels bad enough when you're 17), but I don't think it is inherently creepy.

As for the stalking and watching people whilst they sleep...all right, that is creepy, but he's a fucking vampire! If that's the worst he does with his spare time, we're getting off lightly. I don't think it is something a woman should typically find romantic, but romantic fiction logic always has a bizarre perspective in general: lots of things are treated as sexy which would normally be considered horrific, unpleasant or illegal. How many romantic bodice ripper stories are there? Mills and Boon practically run off of the philosophy that you can't have a romantic relationship without some hunk date raping the protagonist. Even Jane Eyre had bigamy, stalking and a highly romantic blinding-after-saving-pyromaniac-first-wife-from-a-burning-mansion scene (oh yeah, spoiler warning). I think we can accept that a lot of people like to reinvent sex crimes as a romantic fantasy, so I'm willing to let the stalking thing go.

 

[crimson sickle2]

Can't there be a "both" option? What if he's an incredibly old and creepy pedo?

Captcha says he's a creepy old dude, phrase: old shoe.

 

[game-lover]

If Edward is a creepy pedo, then so was Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Sure, she was badass. But she was still in high school when the show began and when she met Angel. Know how many years older that guy is compared to her?

There's probably a bunch of other vampire romances where a vampire gets involved with someone who's basically a teenager too. I suppose we consider them just as creepy? Hm?

 

[Lionsfan]

I guess I'll defer to you on this. I don't really know too much about the series, and I'm not going to pretend to

His response to the news that his first girlfriend died was to immediately attempt suicide. Which does that sound like to you?

[] Wizened, cosmopolitan centenarian.
[] Teenage boy.

I choose.......another Option

[X] Bad Writing

Yeah it is pretty creepy. I mean physically he may be a 17/18 year old, but mentally he's still 100-something years old, and still going to HS to find girls

I don't have to like Twilight (quite the contrary in fact) to cringe at this, because it misses the point. He isn't technically his temporal age. Having more experience isn't physical age, physical age is. He's attracted to someone physically his age, which is typical of just about any male.

To the OP, pedophilia is specifically the sexual attraction towards prepubescents. Bella is 17, still a minor but physically adult.

Seriously, guys? With all that's really wrong with Twilight, you have to pick on the one thing that's not even a problem? Pick on something relevant, like Bella being an obsessive, suicidal spoiled brat. Or something like that. Hell even the sparkles are a better target.

I dunno, it's just weird to me having a 100+ year old chase a 17 year old. Maybe physically, he's 17, but mentally....I dunno.

But even then, [user]Dags90[/user] pointed out that his brain never really aged, or something like that. I'll defer to you guys on Twilight knowledge

 

[Cry Wolf]

Paedophile seems to me to be an overstatement. However, he is definitely a creepy old man despite any hand waving from the author a the sadest part is, as far as I can tell from reviews, that the age dynamic is hardly the creepiest part of their relationship.

Is Bella a small girl? As in, not even a teenager or in puberty?

he starts dating Bella when she is 17

So, no - that's not pedophilia. But it's good that people still don't know the definition of the word and are willing to throw it around. We really do need everybody to coin meanings for each word they've heard - it makes communication so much simpler when we're not held down by common rules and such. By which I mean, that I find the practice annoying, unconstructive and should really stop being done.

pe?do?phil?i?a
Sexual feelings directed toward children.

child
A young human being below the age of full physical development or below the legal age of majority.

The age of majority in many places is greater than seventeen. The age at which physical development completes is also greater than seventeen in many cases. This would, in fact, make him a paedophile if only on technicality. If you spent less time writing condescending posts and more time learning the definitions of the words you're using you might actually be pleasant to communicate with!

 

[Jadak]

Who cares? Yes, he's a creep but what else is he going to do? Being 100 years old doesn't make 70 year old women more attractive, he goes for what feels physically appropriate for himself, good enough.

 

[DarkRyter]

I don't know, man. I haven't read the books.

I don't even know how to read.

 

[DoPo]

pe?do?phil?i?a
Sexual feelings directed toward children.

child
A young human being below the age of full physical development or below the legal age of majority.

The age of majority in many places is greater than seventeen.

What you said there is irrelevant. And you can leave off your cherry picked definition that is not incorrect but you twisted it. It's attraction to prepubescent children. What the definition of "child" is according to the law doesn't really matter.

If you spent less time writing condescending posts and more time learning the definitions of the words you're using you might actually be pleasant to communicate with!

Maybe you should have also learned the definition. Because right now you're twisting words for the sole purpose of attacking me.

 

[Cry Wolf]

pe?do?phil?i?a
Sexual feelings directed toward children.

child
A young human being below the age of full physical development or below the legal age of majority.

The age of majority in many places is greater than seventeen.

What you said there is irrelevant. And you can leave off your cherry picked definition that is not incorrect but you twisted it. It's attraction to prepubescent children. What the definition of "child" is according to the law doesn't really matter.

If you spent less time writing condescending posts and more time learning the definitions of the words you're using you might actually be pleasant to communicate with!

Maybe you should have also learned the definition. Because right now you're twisting words for the sole purpose of attacking me.

Actually, they're both the first suggested definition given by Google's dictionary (it's also worth noting I defined Bella as a child both with andwithout the definition of law anyway). It doesn't actually give a secondary definition for paedophile and the other response for child? Well, now tthat would have been a much easier cherry pick:

A son or daughter of any age.

Hey! I still might have cherry picked the definition of paedophile. Let?s have a look at dictionary answers:

a person who is sexually attracted to children
Collins English Dictionary, 10th Edition

an adult who is sexually attracted to a child or children.
American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Edition

So no, my argument wasn't structured on cherry picking. It's just yours is based on perceived meaning. I had as much intention in attacking you with my corrections as you did with the person you "corrected". We both found particularly annoying behaviours exhibited in another?s post and responded. Next time you want to nitpick somebodies post, please know what you're on about.

 

[lechat]

given the increasing rise in average lifespan i can see a day where some rich 100 year old will one day marry some mindless gold digging model and while it may be a bit creepy i'd say most of us guys would do the same if given the opportunity

 

[TheLogicalGamer]

Technically speaking, I'm just going to suspend all logic and call him White Court Propaganda. He hits everything but the Emotion Eating bit.

 

[Legion]

Well if he was 200 years old and was interested in a woman of 80 then he'd still be interested in somebody around 100 years younger than him. The age gap is not really the issue.

The issue really is "Is it wrong for an adult to feel attracted to a teenager?" or "Does he count as an adult despite his age?"

That said, he is creepy for many other reasons than being a lot older. He takes stalking to a scary level.

 

[tahrey]

What's the local age of majority / consent where Twilight is set? Technically at least he'd be a paedo if Bella is younger than that.

Otherwise, he's just a bit of a creep, maybe verging on Ephebophile. However, it's not like he LOOKS 100-and-some; his own ageing process appears to have been arrested late-teens / early-20s, in which case it's not QUITE as bad. Particularly if he still considers himself to be roughly of that age.

You don't consider either person in a relationship between a 13 and 14 year old as a paedo, do you?

The whole story, however, as far as I can tell, is deeply and terribly fucked up, so I wouldn't actually be surprised if that's later revealed as his actual motivation.

 

[Zykon TheLich_v1legacy]

Actually, they're both the first suggested definition given by Google's dictionary (it's also worth noting I defined Bella as a child both with andwithout the definition of law anyway). It doesn't actually give a secondary definition for paedophile and the other response for child? Well, now tthat would have been a much easier cherry pick:

A son or daughter of any age.

Hey! I still might have cherry picked the definition of paedophile. Let?s have a look at dictionary answers:

a person who is sexually attracted to children
Collins English Dictionary, 10th Edition

an adult who is sexually attracted to a child or children.
American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Edition

So no, my argument wasn't structured on cherry picking. It's just yours is based on perceived meaning. I had as much intention in attacking you with my corrections as you did with the person you "corrected". We both found particularly annoying behaviours exhibited in another?s post and responded. Next time you want to nitpick somebodies post, please know what you're on about.

That's common usage, I believe DoPo is talking about definitions of Pedophilia etc as mental disorders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophilia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebephilia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephebophilia

OT, kind of creepy, mainly for the watching her sleep thing. If he's mentally locked in as a 17 year old... don't know why the hell he'd want to be in school, now that's weird.