ABDL IS NOT PEDOPHELIA

There are numerous resources online addressing this issue, but none explain this misconception quite satisfactorily. You get conservatives like Matt Walsh and Misha Petrov still conflating the two things, Petrov even saying, "But they're attracted to adults acting like children." In other words, abdl is a way of having sex with a child without having sex with a child.

Quite the contrary. ABDL stands for adult babies and diaper lovers. The interest in doing things as an older person which are generally associated with younger people goes by many different handles, but abdl seems to be the most common so I will use it, as well as its being most illustrative of the point I am trying to make in this post. 

The A, or adult, part of the acronym is the most important and oft overlooked letter. The attraction, sexual or otherwise, (and lots or most of the time it is, in fact, otherwise) lies in the fact that someone who is very obviously an adult in every other way is comfortable enough with themselves to engage in activities most other adults would be too embarrassed to because these activities are associated with children. This can and does include putting on a diaper (a garment usually attached in word and actuality with babies and the most private functions of the human body) and using it.

When I was in school there was a girl in my class who was sweet, kind, smart, and mature. However, this 16 year old would often talk in a baby or little kid voice. I wasn't personally attracted to her, but as an abdl I could understand how other guys in my community could be interested in the young woman because of her way of talking. This mature teenager with so many good qualities was totally comfortable talking as if she was quite little indeed.

To use another example: You're on a plane with a woman sitting beside you. You get talking and you find you quite like her, as a person if not romantically. Unbeknownst to you, she doesn't get up to go to the bathroom. Looking at it another way, maybe when she gets home this high-powered, intelligent, friendly, interesting career woman or stay-at-home mom or housewife will go into her nursery, wrap her blankee round her finger, stick her thumb in her mouth, and play with her toys to relax.

That, really, is the best way I can explain this objection which I am sure will only grow bigger and bigger in the near future.