Blech, antis

[kutsuwamushi]

Sometimes I am just baffled by Tumbr discourse. There are legitimately people arguing that it's pedophilia to write porn about characters that have been aged up:

Cept they’re still a child. You’ve just imagined what they’d be like older so it ain’t technically illegal. Let me ask, why age up a child to get off to em if you don’t want to fuck the child? Wouldn’t it make more sense if that wasn’t the case to just do that shit with an adult character? But no, for SOME ODD REASON you take a child and imagine them as older. Really makes me think.

But like ... if you are imagining them as older ... that is the opposite pedophilia ... oof ... my head hurts.

I honestly believe that most of them are just looking to be angry and righteous about something.

And like, people respond and point out various reasons someone might do this, but I always get stuck on a particular question: Why are they assuming the author wants to fuck the characters anyway? It's such an incredibly simplistic way of seeing things. It really makes me wonder how they relate to media.

Hell, I'll use the series my icon is from as an example. The main characters are in middle school when the series starts. Friendship is a major theme and the characters form deep friendships with each other. Does this mean that Naoko Takeuchi, who was in her twenties, must have had a desire to form deep friendships with middle school girls?

Of course not, because it doesn't work that way. And it doesn't work that way when you add in sex, either.

I mean, yes, sometimes people do write erotica about characters because they think they're hot, but it's still stupid to say that they would be attracted to the character in real life. You can be attracted to the themes a character embodies, their design - all sorts of things. You don't have to be attracted to every single trait they possess.

(And in some cases that would be impossible; age in particular is often contradictory, since characters often have stated ages that don't mesh well with their activities or their looks. So are you attracted to the number or to the adult actor who's playing them?)

It's just fundamentalist thinking, to see things in such a direct, and literal way - and refuse to see them in any other way.

Comments

[author_by_night]

But like ... if you are imagining them as older ... that is the opposite pedophilia ... oof ... my head hurts.

Yeah, I agree with that. If the character is being imagined as older... what's the issue? I don't get it.

That being said, I gotta admit I take issue with people writing fics where twelve year olds characters have sex with their parents, and that does happen. I just have no idea why anyone would find that hot. I know, Lolita, but Lolita isn't meant to get you hot on the young character being abused. I'm not saying that's what you're talking about I'm just saying.

And... I think people not used to those kind of fics don't see it any other way because they just can't see past the age. It's not about being fundamentalist, it's just about seeing an author getting hot writing an underage character with an adult.

[sarajayechan]

Tumblr and the Purity Police don't run on logic. They'd liken eating pretzels to child rape if it got them attention and made people bow down and lick their boots.

[muccamukk]

It's like puritanism spray painted rainbow and run amuck. Makes me so mad.

[phosfate]

I've seen The Discourse call it pedophilia if one character is noticeably taller than another. It reminds me of the time I concussed myself with my own bicycle.

[alexseanchai]

It is also deeply…something…to go after fandom for this, not professionally published YA or, you know, Game of Thrones.

[lebateleur]

Let me ask, why age up a child to get off to em if you don’t want to fuck the child?

...Because you don't want anyone to fuck the child?

Q.E.D.

[nenya_kanadka]

Real life aging is problematic. It is known. HDU be attracted to someone who was once a child!

(Here via network, hi! 😊)

[peachpai]

Why are they assuming the author wants to fuck the characters anyway?

As an asexual person, 100x this. I'm not open about my personal details in most online spaces, and it bothers me that I sometimes feel pressured (though I don't give in) to submit my sexuality and gender to public scrutiny in order to participate in fandom. The nipples thing may have been the final straw, but I was moving away from tumblr long before that because of this bs.