It'd be hypocritical of me to disagree. I'm thinking back over all the various fandoms I've been in, and yup, shipping teens left right and center. Shipping them with adults too. Heck, more so when I was a teen and had a lot of sexual fantasies about hooking up with a much older man.
It's kind of like a lot of people like dub-con in fiction and distinguish it from non-con. But some of the things that are categorized dub-con, if it happened irl, you would consider it rape because it's coercion - even if not outright force. But we separate dub-con and non-con in fic because it's different categories of kink and squick. Some people are turned on by the one and turned off by the other. Bottom line, all of this is in the realm of sexual fantasy and not happening to real persons.
Likewise, we certainly cannot separate, irl cases, seduction of a minor versus molestation of a minor because that creates one hell of a slippery slope. But in fandom, I can completely understand if someone is turned on by consensual shota/loli/ephebo whatever and not by non-consensual of the same - or vice versa.
+1
It's kind of like a lot of people like dub-con in fiction and distinguish it from non-con. But some of the things that are categorized dub-con, if it happened irl, you would consider it rape because it's coercion - even if not outright force. But we separate dub-con and non-con in fic because it's different categories of kink and squick. Some people are turned on by the one and turned off by the other. Bottom line, all of this is in the realm of sexual fantasy and not happening to real persons.
Likewise, we certainly cannot separate, irl cases, seduction of a minor versus molestation of a minor because that creates one hell of a slippery slope. But in fandom, I can completely understand if someone is turned on by consensual shota/loli/ephebo whatever and not by non-consensual of the same - or vice versa.