Read on Twitter
FWIW: my personal stance on fictional adult/minor ships is ‘i might find your taste questionable, but who am I to judge?’
IDGAF what you ship or what you fantasize about.
I care about how you treat other human beings. https://twitter.com/freetofic/status/1069893652158312448
IDGAF what you ship or what you fantasize about.
I care about how you treat other human beings. https://twitter.com/freetofic/status/1069893652158312448
To be fair: Current social media can make this complicated sometimes. Here & on tumblr, Everything is 100% public and 100% searchable. It’s easy to unintentionally hurt a stranger who ‘overhears’ you.
And: I’ve talked about this before at length, but fandom’s newfound visibility + misconceptions about fandom’s role in activism (namely: the misconception that fandom is educational & fan activity is always activist)has led to unintended harm to those holding said misconceptions.
I’m not sure what the solution to this is, because it’s not realistic to expect everyone in fandom with a ship that’s definitely illegal or unsafe irl to carefully craft every single thing they say to prevent misunderstanding or unintended takeaways by strangers.
In the long run: maybe we can normalize fandom as a largely lgbt+/queer fantasy space that
(1)holds a funhouse mirror up to real life & mass media, reflecting real social issues & cultural values in weird, warped ways, &
(2)should not inform anybody’s real life relationships.
(1)holds a funhouse mirror up to real life & mass media, reflecting real social issues & cultural values in weird, warped ways, &
(2)should not inform anybody’s real life relationships.
Let people create twisted stories & ship twisted things. Real life twisted so many of us up: let fiction be a place to wash off the shtty stuff in our heads, put there by a toxic culture.
Let us refocus our internal community regulation on behavior rather than words & fiction.
Let us refocus our internal community regulation on behavior rather than words & fiction.
In short: If all I know about two fans is
Fan A ships an adult/underage minor ship, but flags their posts/fanworks appropriately & doesn’t harass ppl
Fan B ships only adult/adult ships, but regularly blogs about wanting ppl w/‘bad’ ships to die & tags ships
I trust fan A more.
Fan A ships an adult/underage minor ship, but flags their posts/fanworks appropriately & doesn’t harass ppl
Fan B ships only adult/adult ships, but regularly blogs about wanting ppl w/‘bad’ ships to die & tags ships
I trust fan A more.
I might change my mind on getting more information. I might also not like fan A’s ship and avoid Fan A because of it.
But Fan B is actively, deliberately hurting real people, and I don’t trust like that.
But Fan B is actively, deliberately hurting real people, and I don’t trust like that.
tldr: Unhealthy fictional shipping isn’t the main behavioral/cultural problem encouraging societal abuse.
It’s the fact that culturally, we think we have the ability - and the right - to decide who deserves to be abused.
It’s the fact that culturally, we think we have the ability - and the right - to decide who deserves to be abused.
