Here we go again.

[bladespark]

"I'm so disappointed and upset, I found out this awesome creator is a pedophile!"

Damn, that sucks. They got caught assaulting a kid?

"No, nothing like that."

Oh, so you mean they were sexting a kid online, or being a creep to one at conventions or something?

"No, not that I know of."

Right, sorry, you must mean they were outed as belonging to that creepy man-boy-love group that treats pedophilia like a healthy sexuality.

"No, and I've never heard of that, that's gross!"

It's super gross, yeah. Though really, if you're concerned about pedophilia, you'd think you'd have heard of the biggest group of pedophiles in the modern world... But anyhow, this creator; let me guess, they went on the record somewhere advocating for lowering the age of consent, or saying the children can consent to sex with adults, or something like that?

"No, not that either."

Well, I'm stumped, that's the usual list of creepy pedo behavior. Did they come out to a therapist and it got leaked or something?

"They wrote a bunch of fanfiction shipping underage characters!"

Oh. I see.

"Isn't it terrible?!"

I'm very sorry for you. But hey, while we're discussing disappointing creators, did you know that George R. R. Martin is a serial killer?

(This script is deeply unrealistic because the people who claim to be against pedophilia will always be screaming loudly about the fanfiction in the very first line, you certainly don't have to pry it out of them, but it's not like having this conversation would make any of them notice the problem with their performative freak-outs anyway.)

Comments

Wordy McWorderson

[ex_flameandsong751]

As someone who is actually a for-real CSA survivor, there are few things that piss me off more than antis saying writing smut with underage characters is exactly the same as being a pedo IRL. When people say this shit it feels extremely invalidating to my experience.

Writing involves fictional, not-real people and doesn't hurt anybody IRL.

Touching IRL kids is hurting people IRL. They are not the same thing.

Also? I'm tired of people acting like teenagers are innocent and that everyone magically stays a virgin until they're 25. When I was a teenager back in the 1990s, I was one of the ONLY kids in my high school [and even in my Christian youth group, back then I was Christian, I'm not anymore] who WAS NOT sexually active. At least 1/4 of the girls I went to school with got pregnant. That movie Kids that generated so much controversy back in the 90s? That was really real shit for a lot of us. I don't know what youth culture is like anymore, but I know when I was growing up, teenagers had sex with each other, that was What They Did, and trying to pretend it didn't happen is bullshit.

I mean yes, IRL teenagers having sex with adults is bad, adults shouldn't be preying on kids. However, I would rather some horny 15 y/o have a safe outlet for their urges/attractions by writing Snarry or writing whatever adult/minor ship is popular now, than going out and finding an older adult who will take advantage of them.

And as far as adults who write it... I've thought about writing one of my OCs losing his virginity as a teenager to one of my other characters written as older, not because I want to have sex with kids [I don't] but because I couldn't come out as trans until I was 33-34, it was shitty to grow up queer in the 80s/90s, so it's like doing a form of therapy for the horny teenage boy years I didn't get to have. Almost all of the people I know who write underage ships are some flavor of queer/trans who didn't get to be themselves as teenagers. I mean, nobody has to justify why they write the fic they write, but that's still an interesting correlation.

I just. People need to touch some fucking grass and stop with this "writing underage stuff is exactly the same as being a IRL pedo" bullshit. And being raised by someone who was very pearl-clutchy "THINK OF THE CHILDREN" while she herself was a goddamn child molester and let rapey shit happen to me from other people, I tend to give the serious side-eye to people who are obsessed with the "purity" of children and wonder why they're being so vocal and what kind of skeletons they have in THEIR closet.

[hitokage]

The notion that teenagers having sex (with each other or with adults) is the same as pedophilia makes me want to spit nails. And you're right, this sophistry is only ever used to clutch pearls over smut and it's gross and exhausting. SOME PEOPLE HAVE SEX. A LOT. And some don't. At all. Karens of the world really need to get over it.

Re: Wordy McWorderson

[bladespark]

The pearl-clutching is ALWAYS some kind of coverup, imho. Either outright projecting, insecurity about their own "sins" but they can go "at least I'm not a pedo!!!!" or whatever else, it's never people who genuinely care about kids. Those people go about providing real help for real children in some way!

Re: Wordy McWorderson

[ex_flameandsong751]

Yup! It's like those politicians screaming about TEH GHEYS who get caught with their pants around their ankles and a rentboy on his knees.

[silveradept]

The willingness to go immediately to "the things that you wrote most be a reflection of your actual personality" is certainly telling about someone, but it definitely isn't the person they're complaining about. We are vast, we contain multitudes, and soplistry of this nature is beneath someone trying to make a serious accusation.