#abuse prevention
I’d take these shipping “activists” more seriously if any of them did any actual work in the real world to help victims but nah, all the most aggressive “activists” seem to do is yell into the void about fiction.
I look at their blogs sometimes. I want to know who they are, whether they can put their money where their mouth is, if they actually have an argument. But I rarely see it. I rarely see any resources posted for abuse victims. They never spread information about any actual, confirmed predators. I never see them post information about how to detect online grooming or how to recognize abusive relationships. They never seem to post mental health information or talk about the impacts of trauma. They never post online safety tips for minors. Nothing to suggest that their intentions are good.
It’s just constant rant after meaningless rant on their fandom oriented blogs. And never a nuanced discussion of how media impacts us and how our culture impacts the way media is created, never any kind of good faith discourse or rational discussion. No, its always the same shit, the same conservative rhetoric, the same “pedophiles can choke” posts.
This isn’t to say that everyone who’s against a certain ship is like this. I mean something specific when I consider someone an “anti”. It’s a very specific type of aggressive anti shipper.
But man do they annoy me. If you care so much about pedophilia or abuse go do something actually productive to help kids and victims. Get involved in social work or psychology, get involved with local criminal justice organizations. Volunteer at a shelter, or a hotline. Go do something, anything, instead of whining about shipping fictional teenagers on the internet.
Stuff that actually makes kids vulernable to sexual predators: abusive and toxic home enviroments, lack of healthy support systems, lack of sex education and consent education (YES even at a young age as long as it’s age-appropriate, we are not arguing about that), teaching kids not to be “tattletales,” rules and social norms that enforce the idea that victims are just as bad as perpetrators, the idea that sex is shameful and your body is shameful, other power structures that enable predators like sexism, racism, homophobia, poverty, etc.
Stuff people on tumblr claim makes kids vulernerable to sexual predators: adults liking childrens cartoons, anyone over 16 ever interacting with anyone more than 2 years younger than them
(Already replied to this but im making it rebloggable)
captainsuckass said: Another enabler: pushing recent religious scandals like the one in Pennsylvania under the rug and saying “no the Church promises to do better next time”
You are absolutely correct. toxic religious beliefs and igoring csa when it does happen because protecting your in group and social norms is more important than protecting victims are both major problems i forgot to mention, thank you
The problem with tumblr trying to combat csa is, like many social problems, a lot of the causes are complicated and involve confronting enormous power systems and our own assumptions about social norms and putting the needs of victims before our need to have some sort of moral gratification and all of that is grueling, boring, emotionally draining work, a lot of which is full of uncertianty and the utter absense of justice or closure, and no one wants to have anything to do with that.
Its much easier to say “here is what a predator looks like” than admit a predator can be anyone, its much easier to reblog lots of “all pedos should die” posts than have compassion for victims, its much easier to be performative than it is to take steps to make any real change or actually think about complex issues or stand there and confront a horrible and messy reality. The least everyone could do is admit that they want easy answers where there are none instead of continuing to pedal a comfortable lie to others
I’m always wary of folks whose platform is to vehemently campaign against something already widely accepted as awful, especially when the extent of their campaigning is to make performative remarks about how bad it is, and to attack anyone who disagrees with the performative nature of their so-called activism.
