The thing is the normalization vs outlet argument is still inconclusive and there are studies that show it going both ways.
At the risk of getting in trouble, again, I am absolutely convinced loli stuff is a kink more similar to ageplay than it is to pedophilia. I don't think that most people who consume/participate in this kind of content relate it to actual children. So the only thing being normalize in the process is just a kink. And normalization of a kink only means less kink shaming(like the kind going on in this thread).
The "offending picture". For the half a second I had a chance to see it, could be argued to be "adult looking". Also, I don't think that pedophilia is based on body type, but rather the power imbalance that adults have over innocent children.
Thus, loli isn't even so much of an "outlet for pedophilia" as someone would argue, but an outlet for a 2D complex kink related to usually some mixture of cuteness and androgyny(also most lolicons are into shotacon and the otokonoko genre due to the shared body type).
I believe this because the outlet perspective makes sense to me. While the "escalation" argument doesn't make a bit of logical sense to me.
Also, I don't think that people have any agency whatsoever in the body type they find attractive. In fact, I would argue body type is a large part of what sexual orientation itself is based on. My rationalization or justification for that claim being that straight men will often be attracted to passing transwoman, or gay men attracted to transmen(Buck Angel is more popular among gay men than any other group), despite orientation often being defined by biological sex and things like genitals. In this case, it is not defined by genitals and biological sex, but appearance. That means sexual orientation is most likely connected, at least in part, to appearance.
So, in my view, the "normalization" of such content isn't actually normalization of any kind or predatory paraphilia, but just sending the message to people that like it, "hey, you're okay. Relax and have fun. You don't have to force yourself to become someone you're not."
Also, this logic that pedo or predation is based on appearance, is the entire logic behind the claim that pedophilia is a sexual orientation, when it isn't. I would say that they're two different things, and attraction to appearance is different than that.
But I don't that people have any agency over what appearance they find attractive, any more than someone can choose to find Buck Angel more attractive than Bailey Jay by choice. And I think that often, the reason someone would be more attracted to Buck than Baily, is because of physical appearance, and that preference being caused by sexual orientation.
And, based on the fact people don't actually have agency over what body type they do find attractive, it's actually a bit cruel to demonize, kink shame, and suppress content they enjoy, just because it is deviant and neotenous.
Because instead of actually decreasing rates of people with a lolicon or shotacon fetish, it will lead to self loathing and depression for those who do have this kink.
I do think that there are dangerous people who are pedophiles and other similar people with predatory inclinations who do consume this stuff. But I think that they make up the minority of people who do so. Much like the fact that the majority of people who consume violent video games don't have inclinations to act out violence in real life. I also don't think that our society as a whole is in any danger or normalizing sexual predation on children, and certainly not from Japanese video games like this.
These two videos basically sum up my thoughts on the matter.
