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

[Shoggoth2588]

There's been a ton of stuff written by people a lot smarter than I am (or rather, people who have paid a lot more attention to Twilight and/or retained a lot more info) who have covered this topic. I'd say he's a major creep though and technically he is a pedophile. He has the body of a person of whatever-the-Hell age he was at undeath but that doesn't stop him from having lived for over a century before he met Bella or indeed, before she was even born and possibly conceived. He just did a lot of weird, creepy things to Bella throughout the course of the book series. He admitted to breaking into her room to watch her sleep for instance. He brought her to his home which was a big risk considering how 'young' that one sibling of his was (Jasper?). There was a degree of emotional manipulation in New Moon (I love you so much that I have to go away forever). Like I said, people with better retention of the series has said all of this before far better than I could do at this point.

Off Topic: Watch Warm Bodies. It's really good.

Further off topic: I'm waiting for the Golem variation: Heartstone (or whatever the Hell they decide to call it).

 

[Padwolf]

Edward is a bit creepy. Not a pedophile though since he is mentally a 17 year old. A very different 17 year old but one all the same. He is a creep in the first of the Twilight series, what with breaking into her house to watch her sleep after first meeting her. However he stops all that after the first book. I've read all the books. If anything blame Bella for all of Edward's faults, she's the worst written of the lot. Also let us not ignore Jacob Black imprinting on an infant. I've read the books, I understand the whole imprinting thing but it doesn't stop it being creepy as hell. His friend also imprinted on a two or three year old.

Yeah Edward is a bit overprotective but to be fair he does have reason. Bella is just an idiot who is incapable of logical thought and reason. He isn't overprotective in a creepy way. Really, blame Bella for everything that happens. Edward isn't very well written either, but Bella is just awful.

 

[Loonyyy]

Oh hi there. You must be new. The internet's made that joke since the first movie.

He's many times her age, she's a teenager, and he breaks into her house to watch her sleep.

Yes, this joke has been done to death, of course he could be considered these things.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

Eh, he has a teenage body and I would guess a teenage mind. I couldn't really care in a situation like this in real life as long as both parties were happy.

 

[Fluffythepoo]

If 17 year olds still find me hawt when im 118, ima be all over them..

 

[Nieroshai]

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.

 

[John Riendeau]

You know, I think it's odd that he would go to high school seeing how he doesn't age, and not get home schooled instead. And seeing how he isn't anything like Dracula, a vampire who has few equal, yea. I'm going with creepy old guy.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

another point to bring up about Edward, he gets Bella pregnant right? how is that possible if his body is frozen in time? He should be well past the point of sterility and with the obvious lack of blood flow he shouldn't even be able to get it up much less get her pregnant.

Aren't (Bram Stoker inspired) vampires just a metaphor for sex or something, anyway? So, clearly, they have magic boner powers.

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

yeah, if they life forever why not find something benefiting humans

This is what I find really creepy about them.
Because, that 100 year age gap will mean pretty much nothing when they're, say, 500 or 1000 years old.
But the fact that they'll still be going to high school, instead of contributing to society?
That's just... weird.

 

[wintercoat]

It seems that something needs to be cleared up for several people.

There are three classifications for attraction to people under the age of 20: pedophilia, which is attraction to prepubescent children(roughly age 10 and younger), hebephilia, attraction to post-pubescent early teenagers(around ages 11-14), and ephebophilia, which is attraction to those in their late teens, or roughly ages 15-19. By any definition of the word, Edward is not a pedophile. He's an ephebophile. Now Jacob...

another point to bring up about Edward, he gets Bella pregnant right? how is that possible if his body is frozen in time? He should be well past the point of sterility and with the obvious lack of blood flow he shouldn't even be able to get it up much less get her pregnant.

Aren't (Bram Stoker inspired) vampires just a metaphor for sex or something, anyway? So, clearly, they have magic boner powers.

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

yeah, if they life forever why not find something benefiting humans

This is what I find really creepy about them.
Because, that 100 year age gap will mean pretty much nothing when they're, say, 500 or 1000 years old.
But the fact that they'll still be going to high school, instead of contributing to society?
That's just... weird.

They're not allowed to. Gaining fame would be a secrecy risk, and would bring the Volturi down on anyone who tried. The Volturi are very serious about keeping humanity in the dark about vampires. Going to high school in some small town is one thing. But curing cancer? Making some technological breakthrough? Advancing medicine in just about any way? They wouldn't allow the risk.

 

[MetalMagpie]

I was talking with my freaky friends when the subject of Twilight came up. As we talked about the story I mused out loud, " if Edward is 118 in the first book and he starts dating Bella when she is 17 does that make him a pedo or just a creepy old guy?" upon which there was a burst of laughter.I just wondered what other people would think about this.

Having a large age gap does not make someone a pedophile. Having sex with a child is what makes you a paedophile. So a 17-year-old who has sex with a 12-year-old is a pedophile. Whereas a 70-year-old who has sex with a 16-year-old is not (in the UK at least, where the age of consent is 16).

Is he a bit creepy? Yeah, a bit. But more for the climbing-through-windows-and-watching-her-sleep stuff than for the age gap. He's no more creepy than a lot of male heart-throbs in fantasy novels.

another point to bring up about Edward, he gets Bella pregnant right? how is that possible if his body is frozen in time? He should be well past the point of sterility and with the obvious lack of blood flow he shouldn't even be able to get it up much less get her pregnant.

Silly Princess, didn't you remember? Twilight doesn't care about the rules of Vampire lore. Why? Because Stephanie Meyer has money.

As much as I personally don't like the way vampires are presented in the Twilight books, let's not pretend that there's some sort of magical Vampire Lore rulebook which says how vampires should/shouldn't be.

In the West, our main image of vampires comes from one book by an Irish guy, which was made into a string of cheesy British horror films starring Christopher Lee. Oh, and then an American lady wrote some slightly sexier books.

 

[DoPo]

Aren't (Bram Stoker inspired) vampires just a metaphor for sex or something, anyway?

No...any yes. The vast majority of vampires in media are inspired by Bram Stoker. And a lot of those are masturbation material. However, Dracula wasn't one - he's a creepy ugly old guy who chomps on people and has a rather large disregard for human life. Later on in the novel he does get younger looks, if only because he looked ugly and old beforehand. Not a sex icon, though. It's later influence that turned vampires into soft-porn stars - a large part the reason were Anne Rice's novels.

 

[CrystalShadow]

He's DEFINITELY a creep, in more than one way.

Pedophile? Technically no.

Unless you're like me, saying "at her age it's called ephebophilia," I'm curious about why it's technically not pedophilia.

Strictly speaking, being a pedophile (or ephebophile) implies being attracted to the relevant age group to the exclusion of (or in preference to) anything else.

Also it's questionable whether a 17-year old is physically distinct enough from an adult to be arguing about whether that makes you have some kind of sexual fetish or not.

Just because the law defines a 17 year old as a child doesn't mean this makes sense biologically speaking.


In a more general sense, this question raises a different kind of problem. What does age mean if you aren't physically ageing?

There was a well-known dutch TV presenter (Bart de Graaf) who had a developmental disorder that meant he never developed physically beyond the state of a 12 year old. (although over time he did start to look 'old', which was even stranger)

Watching him present TV shows was always bizarre, because he looked and sounded like a 12 year old, but really didn't behave like one.

That particular case raises a different problem though; He isn't a child, but he looks like one.

Aside from the fact that he would be recognised due to being a celebrity, if you met him, would you freak out when you saw him flirting with adult women, or drinking alcohol?

For that matter, if he had an adult girlfriend, (which, based on his chronological age, would have to be the case if he had a girlfriend at all), how many people would assume the woman was some kind of pervert that liked doing weird stuff with a child?

When physical and chronological and/or mental ages don't line up properly, you get some really weird situations.

 

[Erttheking]

I'm really not bothered by this too much (I save the pedo jokes for Jacob) but maybe that's because I'm more concerned about him being an emotionally abusive stalker.

 

[Lilani]

I was talking with my freaky friends when the subject of Twilight came up. As we talked about the story I mused out loud, " if Edward is 118 in the first book and he starts dating Bella when she is 17 does that make him a pedo or just a creepy old guy?" upon which there was a burst of laughter.I just wondered what other people would think about this.

Pedophilia is more about the age and sexual maturity of the individual, not the age difference. While there is 101 years between them, Bella is for all intents and purposes sexually mature, so no that wouldn't be pedophilia.

But as for a creep? Watching her while she sleeps without her knowing? Yeah, definitely.

 

[Thaluikhain]

another point to bring up about Edward, he gets Bella pregnant right? how is that possible if his body is frozen in time? He should be well past the point of sterility and with the obvious lack of blood flow he shouldn't even be able to get it up much less get her pregnant.

Silly Princess, didn't you remember? Twilight doesn't care about the rules of Vampire lore. Why? Because Stephanie Meyer has money.

As much as I personally don't like the way vampires are presented in the Twilight books, let's not pretend that there's some sort of magical Vampire Lore rulebook which says how vampires should/shouldn't be.

In the West, our main image of vampires comes from one book by an Irish guy, which was made into a string of cheesy British horror films starring Christopher Lee. Oh, and then an American lady wrote some slightly sexier books.

Exactly. There is plenty to condemn Twilight for, being different to other vampire stories is more or less the only complaint raised against it that isn't valid.

...

OT: Edward, like most love interests in paranormal romances, is a horrible, horrible person that would fit much better in 40K canon being hunted by Inquisitors and justifying totalitarian rule.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

Could Edward Cullen be considered a pedophile or a creep?

I thought the internet at large had pretty much decided this as fact by now...