things you shouldn't sexualize:

[ AN IMPORTANT THREAD ]

I think the point these threads are TRYING to make is that many things aren't inherently sexual. And that's true! There are lots of things that are viewed as sexual or sexy, but aren't inherently sexual. Things like certain clothes or breasts or other body parts, for example.

But these threads miss the mark because they're always constructed as "things you shouldn't romanticize or sexualize" and then proceed to type out a laundry list of the most random, benign words and they never provide any nuance or explanation beyond that.

And some of the items are things that we can all agree on that it's wrong to sexualize like "literal real life children." But then on that SAME list are things like "fishnet tights" or "cartoons" or "body types" or "lgbt+ ppl" and it's like woah there you need to elaborate.

It is OKAY to find many of these things sexy! It's okay to find certain clothes or body types or people sexy, or to think of them in a sexual manner. The important thing though, is people need to remember that these things aren't *inherently sexual* and behave accordingly.

An example: clothes that you find sexy.

If your partner is wearing those clothes and you have their consent, hey, you're allowed to ogle them.

But if some stranger on the bus is wearing those same clothes? You don't have their consent. It's be wrong for you to ogle them.

Another things that disturbs me about these threads is when they say "don't sexualize (lgbt+ ppl)." They probably mean "don't treat lgbt+ ppl as sexual objects and nothing more" but they mean/are implying something else. Here's a thread that goes into it https://twitter.com/FuckOffGiorno/status/1349617426875473920

There's definitely more to this, like of lot of these takes are kindaaaaa pushing anti-sex arguments, if not going straight-up SWERF. So let's be careful to not demonize sex or sexuality. Just say "hey reminder that things aren't inherently sexual" and call it a day.

Additionally, these takes are almost always made by 15 year olds who (bless their hearts, I know their intentions are good) don't know what they're talking about and have no business speaking about the topic of "sexualization" or kinks anyway. Stop retweeting from them.

And I don't say that to belittle teens, teens today are smart and knowledgeable about current social issues. But this is not the topic for them to be speaking about, much less in public on a very popular site on the world wide web where they're exposed to millions of people.

Imagine you're sitting in some giant venue and then a 15 year old gets on stage, grabs a mic, and starts lecturing the crowd about what kinks they find gross... you'd probably be very uncomfortable. So stop giving teens on twitter a platform to talk about this stuff, please.

Not only is it uncomfortable, but it can also put the teen in harm's way, if there happens to be a predator in the crowd (on twitter) who is now aware of this child's stance on sex and with a click of a button, can access the kids' bio, selfies, and possibly slide into their DMs.