It’s honestly pathetic and hypocritical how antis will post their own life story and use it as a way of saying “This is why you shouldn’t ship this” and treat it as if their life and feelings are the only ones that matter and are totally universal. They talk about how much they protect and love survivors, etc.
Yet when a survivor posts about their own trauma and how ships have helped them navigate and come to terms with their own trauma or how equating fiction to their abuse is degrading and causes more harm to them than good, they’re told…
“Cope in private” nevermind the fact that shipping can form a community and help them form bonds and friendships that can help get them through their trauma. This also basically amounts to telling them to go it alone and that they aren’t allowed to have a community.
“Stop hurting other survivors” nevermind the fact that antis have no problem hurting other survivors when they say this.
“Stop using your trauma to hurt other survivors.” Nevermind the fact that antis use their own trauma to hurt other surviviors.
etc.
Why is it that antis can treat their own personal stories and experiences as absolute truth yet a shipper who came from similar circustance isn’t allowed to?
Take a good long look in the mirror. If something is personally triggering to you, great. Blacklist it. Block it. Don’t follow people who post it. You don’t have the right to tell other people what spaces they are allowed to have or how they’re alllowed to do something.
Anti: I can enjoy devilman while being critical of its problematic elements
Me, who has been trying to explain this concept to antis who want fanworks with problematic elements to not exist at all and harass their creators instead of accepting that adults are able to consume problematic work critically:
It’s almost like antis claim a ship is problematic purely because they don’t like it cause it interferes with a ship they do like or they don’t like one or more of the characters involved
I’ve been seeing a lot of posts about the “dangers of fiction influencing reality” with linked scientific findings and stuff and I appreciate the effort to back things up with psychological studies rather than, like, memes, but I’m just letting y'all know… that was literally the argument Tipper Gore used when she went after Prince music for fear it would turn her daughter into a stripper. That’s the exact argument that was used against Rockstar when they were accused of ‘making’ kids shoot up schools. These crusades against media have time and time again failed with their only positive results usually just being more prevalently available warnings for mature content. And their negative repurcussions have been far greater, such as an increased stigma against black music and parents banning their children from playing any video games. (Blocking people off from experiencing multiple genres based on racial bias and excluding access to an entire artform.) I’m not saying that there’s not stuff to be concerned about/critique. I’m just saying that if you’re going the “fiction is dangerous!” route it has historically been proven to be a lost cause.
Let’s not forget that gangsta rap was one of the things people like Tipper were after too.
I.e.: artistic expression by black men who were, sure, sometimes being vulgar for the hell of it (like white rockers weren’t?!) but who were also often talking about social issues and injustices too
You can’t kill the vulgarity without killing the important part too.
to be clear i think that actively and openly engaging with harry potter as a cutesy fun little hobby is inexcusable when jk rowling is the face of a contemporary hate movement that is making significant legislative gains. this current wave of cultural transphobia is killing people and frankly if that’s not enough for you to at least reconsider public enjoyment of her work then you and i have extremely different priorities.
but i also really must stress that you can not have coherent and functional politics if you think that ‘endorsing deeply troubled works made by a bigoted creator’ and ‘actively platforming hateful ideologies’ can be presented as equivalent. they just aren’t.
in general I’d urge people to get away from categorizing behavior as good or bad. you are going to find you have a much easier time talking about this stuff meaningfully if you focus on the intent behind people’s behavior and then the effects of this behavior. you’re not capable of furthering any sort of moral cause unless you can make these distinctions.
adult women aren’t inherently creepy for being in fandom and having hobbies apart from raising babies and doing taxes
the vast majority of people pushing back against the worrying trend of instigating harassment over fictional characters and relationships aren’t incest supporters or pedophiles, actually
liking a m/f ship doesn’t make someone a dirty heterosexual invading your space
preferring gay ships doesn’t make you ‘’woke’’ and good
no one owes you a disclaimer that they are a good person who recognizes that their favorite fictional villain’s actions are evil and that they don’t condone those actions irl
liking a fictional villain is in no way comparable to advocating abuse/murder/genocide/etc and you’re a fucking idiot if you believe that
just because a woman is attracted to a fictional villain doesn’t mean she’s promoting toxic relationships or going to end up in a toxic relationship. assuming women can’t tell fiction and reality apart stinks of internalized misogyny
some rando’s a/b/o fanfics have none of the level of influence that popular tv shows and movies spreading propaganda have
no one owes you a detailed description of their traumas and mental health problems
abusive relationships are not the same as enemies to lovers ships
y’all need to chill the fuck out over people, relationships, actions and events that don’t actually exist and learn how to enjoy and discuss them like normal people
fandom is a hobby, not a form of activism
feel free to add more
^^^THIS^^^
Adding:
you can’t tell someone’s irl gender, sexuality, or values from what they read, write, and ship
no srsly you can’t, stop that shit
unfuckening the formatting idk what happened there:
- fandom is a hobby, not a form of activism
- adult women aren’t inherently creepy for being in fandom and having hobbies apart from raising babies and doing taxes
- the vast majority of people pushing back against the worrying trend of instigating harassment over fictional characters and relationships aren’t incest supporters or pedophiles, actually
- liking a m/f ship doesn’t make someone a dirty heterosexual invading your space
- preferring gay ships doesn’t make you “woke” and good
- no one owes you a disclaimer that they are a good person who recognizes that their favorite fictional villain’s actions are evil and that they don’t condone those actions irl
- liking a fictional villain is in no way comparable to advocating abuse/murder/genocide/etc and you’re a fucking idiot if you believe that
- just because a woman is attracted to a fictional villain doesn’t mean she’s promoting toxic relationships or going to end up in a toxic relationship. assuming women can’t tell fiction and reality apart stinks of internalized misogyny
- some rando’s a/b/o fanfics have none of the level of influence that popular tv shows and movies spreading propaganda have
- no one owes you a detailed description of their traumas and mental health problems
- abusive relationships are not the same as enemies to lovers ships
- y’all need to chill the fuck out over people, relationships, actions and events that don’t actually exist and learn how to enjoy and discuss them like normal people
