I want to build on this idea a little more and talk about 'safe' horror. I've seen a lot of people confused by fandom puritans who are (seemingly) interested in horror media and I think there's an answer here. They like safe horror, horror stripped of anything too real. https://twitter.com/PlagueSquid/status/1277216119443673088

There's a lot of scholarship about the purpose of horror and why people like it, but I'm going to focus on one reason in particular: horror lets people explore real world fears in a safe environment. It's the ultimate use of fiction as catharsis.

Nobody would want to really be murdered, but it's entertaining to watch a fictional character be murdered because it gives us a chance to safely exorcise our fear of sudden violent death. It's too intense for some people, but a lot of others enjoy the viewing experience.

In other words, horror is like a problematic fictional ship. Nobody would want to experience a toxic relationship, but they can be entertaining to watch in fiction. The difference is that horror typically (but not always) uses violence in the place of sex.

So it would make sense that someone who hates the idea of shipping as catharsis would also hate horror, the genre built on catharsis. But that's not true in practice. In fact, it's actually pretty common to see fandom puritans interested in horror media. Why?

My theory is there's an attraction to the aesthetics of horror divorced from the cathartic part. Think about something like the Boos from Mario. They don't have any real world meaning like ghosts in another game. They don't represent loss or violent deaths. They're just ghosts.

The Boos are horror devoid of anything except aesthetics, empty horror, safe horror. And don't get me wrong, I love Boos. But they're not scary. They're specifically made to be not scary and just represent the horror aesthetic because kids playing Mario don't need catharsis.

You see this replicated in puritan parts of horror fandoms. The aesthetics are distanced from the real world meanings on purpose. For example, FNAF fans who like the purple guy are treated really badly. Puritan fans don't want to talk about the child murderer in the series.

Pyramid Head is divorced from his context in Silent Hill 2 where he's specifically portrayed as a sexual predator and representative of deep psychological trauma. Instead he's just another monster boyfriend and anyone who likes how sexually aggressive he is gets ostracized.

That's not to say that liking horror purely for aesthetics is a bad thing or even exclusive to fandom puritans. Like I said, I like the Boos too. But acting like horror can ONLY be enjoyed for aesthetics and catharsis is morally wrong is a very puritan way of doing things.