# What is the word for a 'reverse pedophile'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 27, 2004, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-a-reverse-pedophile/242284 "2004-04-27T15:20:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-a-reverse-pedophile/242284/1 "2004-04-27T15:20:38Z")
That is, a youngster who fancies older people? ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-a-reverse-pedophile/242284/2 "2004-04-27T15:26:48Z")
How about geri-phile? ---
**Author:** ![cabdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@cabdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cabdude)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-a-reverse-pedophile/242284/3 "2004-04-27T15:29:03Z")
Ashton Kutcher? ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-a-reverse-pedophile/242284/4 "2004-04-27T15:30:08Z")
or better yet, gerophile ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-a-reverse-pedophile/242284/5 "2004-04-27T15:43:25Z")
I think the term for “sexual attraction to the elderly” is _gerontophilia_. (Don’t know if this _precisely_ meets the OP’s case … ) A geri-phile, of course, is someone who’s sexually attracted to Ginger Spice. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-a-reverse-pedophile/242284/6 "2004-04-27T16:20:50Z")
Umberto Eco wrote a hilarious parody of _Lolita_ that he called _Granita_. In his version of the story, a young man falls in love with an old lady. It would seem that the sight of her marbled flesh, glimpsed through a window as she removed her stockings, drove him wild with uncontrollable lust. When he runs away with her, he has to travel by bicycle (he doesn’t have a driver’s license yet) and pedals away with “Granita” holding on for dear life. The story appears in Eco’s anthology _Misreadings_. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-a-reverse-pedophile/242284/7 "2004-04-27T16:45:53Z")
“MILF-Hunter”? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Fenneth\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Fenneth\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenneth_Jr)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-a-reverse-pedophile/242284/8 "2004-04-27T17:10:35Z")
Ew. Seriously, I’m not sure, but if you’re really interested in the subject 😕 then go watch _Harold & Maude_ Good movie by the way 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-a-reverse-pedophile/242284/9 "2004-04-27T17:41:36Z")
In most cultures there is a clear definition of childhood or at least age of legal minority. Where is the line between say, someone like me who has a wife 9 years older, and a 20 year old crusing for chicks at the old folks home? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2004, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-a-reverse-pedophile/242284/10 "2004-04-27T17:49:06Z")
In the gay community—at least, 25 years ago—they were known as “wrinkle queens.” ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2004, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-a-reverse-pedophile/242284/11 "2004-04-28T00:42:18Z")
Is the OP talking about teenagers or young adults who are attracted to older people? Or pre-pubescent children who are precociously sexualized and seek encounters with adults? ---
**Author:** ![caphis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@caphis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caphis)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2004, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-a-reverse-pedophile/242284/12 "2004-04-28T00:44:30Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Is the OP talking about teenagers or young adults who are attracted to older people? Or pre-pubescent children who are precociously sexualized and seek encounters with adults? The former. ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2004, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-a-reverse-pedophile/242284/13 "2004-04-28T01:08:21Z")
That would be, “A High School Student.” Well, one who had a TOTAL BABE for a Spanish teacher anyway… ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2004, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-a-reverse-pedophile/242284/14 "2004-04-28T01:36:00Z")
And I had the hots for my English teachers in grade nine AND grade ten… …but I don’t think that a post-pubescent teen lusting after an older man or woman is the precise opposite of a pedophile. A pedophile lusts after _pre-pubescent children_, not young men and women. I’m more inclined to agree that the opposite of a pedophile is one of **Lumpy** ’s “pre-pubescent children who are precociously sexualized and seek encounters with adults”. Does this ever occur? ---
**Author:** ![Ms2001](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ms2001/32/18463_2.png) [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2004, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-a-reverse-pedophile/242284/15 "2004-04-28T02:10:42Z")
Indeed… a teenager or young adult who lusts after older people would be a reverse ephebophile. ---
**Author:** ![Survivor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/51bf81/32.png) [@Survivor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Survivor)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2004, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-a-reverse-pedophile/242284/16 "2004-04-28T03:11:29Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > I’m more inclined to agree that the opposite of a pedophile is one of **Lumpy** ’s “pre-pubescent children who are precociously sexualized and seek encounters with adults”. > > Does this ever occur? Unfortunately, it happens among survivors of sexual abuse… Whether they were sexualized pre-pubescently or pubescently… At least among the Male Survivors I know… When the only attention you’ve gotten (whether positive or negative) is through sex with adults, you tend to seek it out again… ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2004, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-word-for-a-reverse-pedophile/242284/17 "2004-04-28T05:34:09Z")
Uh, wouldn’t “jailbait” be the right word?