Let’s talk about fancops ‘protecting fictional children’, with the regard to the belief that they should never be aged up and never be shipped with anyone.
Let’s talk about Kotoko Utsugi.
In the canon media where she appears, Kotoko Utsugi is:
a child of no more than 12 years old.
a victim of repeated and brutal child sexual assault.
a victim of incestuous grooming.
a suicide attempt survivor.
a mass murderer.
a perpetrator of sexual assault.
someone who believes all adults are monsters and that she will become a monster if she ever grows up.
Attempting to suppress fanworks where Kotoko grows older and interacts with any kind of romance or sexuality does not in any way ‘protect’ her.
Insisting that Kotoko can only ever be seen as a child, and can never be allowed to have a consensual romantic or sexual relationship in fact traps her at the lowest point of her life, unable to change or heal from it.
Harassing people who create fanworks where Kotoko has romantic relationships and/or gets older also directs abuse at real, living survivors of sexual assault and grooming, who may be engaging with fanworks about Kotoko in order to create a safe way apart from themselves to interact with and heal from their own abuse and trauma.
And this doesn’t just go for Kotoko, this goes for all child characters.
Trapping them as children and refusing to allow fanworks where they grow up, experience relationship, or even where they continue to experience fucked up relationships as children doesn’t protect characters.
It stunts them.
And it stunts creativity.
And it harms people who are looking for an outlet for their own feelings.
OMFG, THAT’S LIKE… LITERALLY, A CHILD YOU CHILD MOLESTERS! HOW DARE YOU!
*PROCEEDS TO ATTACK QUEER PROSHIPPERS ON TUMBLR FOR FICTIONAL SHIPS WHILE COMPLEATLY IGNORING WHITE CISHET MALES GROOMING YOUNG GIRLS ON TIKTOK JUST LIKE THE REST OF OUR BEAUTIFUL SOCIETY*
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