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Fandom mantras: *always* properly tag possibly triggering fan content if your account isn't priv, the block and mute buttons are your best friends, respect age restrictions, contextualize your discussions about the impact of fiction and make them as productive as you can.
I can't stress the tagging thing enough. It's for the safety and autonomy of your readers (if it's ao3), and your own peace of mind. If the work is out there, and it contains dark themes or romanticized abuse, it has a right to exist AND people have the right to avoid them.
The important thing is not fighting or trying to ban problematic fanfiction. The important thing is to educate as many people on the topics in real life and have them understand that the work can exist separately from their own life experiences.
I'm beginning for people to understand that >aggressive and disproportional reactions to certain media are not sustainable as a method to stop any abuse from happening<. If your goal is a good thing, this isn't an effective way. It's just screaming.
I understand that the internet and fandom culture have evolved to a state that people, especially teens, are having a hard time separating themselves, their lives, from their online counterparts; they're too close.
So many of you treat the sexualization of fictional characters as a personal matter because of the time and emotional labor spent on building your own fandom identity around these characters. It's understandable. But it's not an excuse to lose sight of real people.
The more you put the weight of inexcusable behaviors on the existence of fictional content, the more you're enabling abusers to fly under the radar. I need all of you to understand that.
