Who are nymphets? These are adolescent girls who differ in sexual attractiveness and behavior from their peers. This expression became most widespread among the masses after the appearance of the sensational novel by Vladimir Nabokov “Lolita”, where scenes of an erotic and sexual nature are described in detail.
According to one of the definitions, nymphets (photo below) are girls with pronounced signs of premature (early) sexual development. Other interpretations of this word can mean the following: a youngster, a flirty girl of modest appearance, a minor girl of easy virtue, a sensitive and worried girl, and a “sex dependent” youngster.
Nymphet - meaning of the word
Nymphs (translated from the ancient Greek language - “brides”) is a concept from ancient Greek mythology, where girls see the personification of uncontrolled forces, notable in the form of a murmur of a stream, the growth of trees and flowering flowers in wild forests and mountains. Based on this connotation, the concept of "nymphet" was born. However, many do not fully understand who these nymphets are? These are sexually attractive teenage girls who have started earlier, but incomplete puberty. Some sources claim that they are fully aware of their attractiveness, so their behavior is extremely flirty.
Interpretation based on the novel by Vladimir Nabokov “Lolita”
The main character of the novel, Humbert, often used a word like a nymphet. So he described young girls who arouse his sexual attraction to them. In one of his monologues, he said that some girls between the ages of nine and fourteen often fascinate adult men (older than themselves two or more times) with their appearance and behavior. On the part of men, he describes this attraction as a kind of demonic force - “nymphic”. Based on these considerations, the hero decides to refer to them as "nymphets." According to Humbert himself, not every young girl can be called that, which is quite logical. Who are nymphets, he determined for himself. He considers Dolores Heyes (the main character of the novel), which he later called Lolita, a traditional embodiment of such a girl for his own imagination.
Who are nymphets? Use of the word in society and other references in literature
In the modern world, the name "Lolita" is used as a common noun and is an alternative to the word "nymphet", that is, it is used as a synonym. And the age restrictions of this concept began to be determined much more broadly than in the work of Vladimir Nabokov. Most often, the word "nympho" is used to determine the age category of the female.
In foreign literature, the expression "nymphet" is found in the poem of the British contemporary Shakespeare Michael Drayton "Poly-Olibion." There, the term is used to provide a poetic description of the geographical sights of Great Britain, where the nymphatica is a small nymph.
In the history of world practice, the appropriate female age for marriage among different nations was assigned differently. In some ancient states, the age limit for girls was from ten to twelve years. However, this is also found in the modern world, in particular, in the Eastern countries. All these facts lead to the negative consequences of the fate and life of little girls.
From the point of view of specialists
Modern medicine says that sexual attraction to children who are pre-puberty or early puberty is evidence of a sexual preference disorder (pedophilia syndrome). The diagnostic criterion shares the following classifications of this disorder: attraction to the prepubertal age category (children under twelve years of age) and ICD-10 (international classification of diseases of the 10th revision) - to children and adolescents under the age of fourteen. The overwhelming majority of specialists say that “true pedophilia” should be distinguished from imperfect pedophilic goals, which are abundant in society.
What pedophiles say about nymphet
Caught pedophiles often come to reasoning about the hero of the novel "Lolita", trying to justify the committed actions. With all this, some people are not pedophiles at all, because their sexual preference is not aimed at children in a priority way. According to the well-known psychotherapist Rich Snowdon, men caught in incest very often speak about their victims in the manner of a hero from Nabokov’s novel, calling them “nympho” or “Lolita”. Humbert also attributed to the little girls demonic power over himself, transferring responsibility for the actions committed to his victims.