You know, it occurs to me that I don’t actually even know what fanfictons pro-censorship fans are objecting to when they say “it’s okay to write about it but not okay to romantcize it.”
Because in pretty much every minor x adult fic, incest fic, toxic relationship fic *I* have seen– the fact that the relationship is abnormal and fucked up and not socially okay is a big part of the conflict of the plot.
I don’t actually think I could name a taboo relationship fic I’ve seen where the theme of the piece was “actually this is normal and healthy and you should do it IRL.”
in their minds if you dont sit them down every 5 minutes to explicitly say “this is bad” then you are romanticising it
And even if one did provide disclaimers every five minutes, antis would still accuse the author of “glorifying” [*insert bad thing here*] for daring to depict it in their story at all. Like, I recall this Danny Phantom author who wrote a dark Valerie Gray/Dan Phantom fic where the latter abused the former; Val’s abuse was not “romanticized,” yet people still flamed the author so much, she responded by apologizing to these assholes and deleting her fic.
Let’s take a look another darkfic, that would have absolutely gotten the author inundated with harassment if they’d written it during our current fandom era (2015 to now): Eden, a Hermione Granger/Lucius Malfoy fic whose summary encapsulates the story’s horror in one sentence: “an obsession that destroys everything”…
The author put their story in the horror and angst categories, and doesn’t consider it a romance. Furthermore, they flat-out tell you “you’re in the wrong place” if you like romance. Regarding Eden itself, this fic’s Hermione goes through intensely violent, soul-crushing suffering from the get-go. Mostly beca– No, especially because of Lucius “Mudbloods deserve to be treated like subhumans” Malfoy. A clear example of a non-romanticized fanwork if I ever saw one, but antis would burn Obsessmuch at the stake anyway. Depiction equals “approval” in their eyes.
When you think depiction is endorsement, the exception will, of course, always be yourself, because you, unlike Those Dumb Other People Women (™), are able uniquely to understand that the thing is bad.
It’s a lot like how your youth pastor won’t be corrupted by watching sinful slutty sexy worldly shows, but you will be: it’s about control, not about media literacy. The goal is to control the actions of strangers and frame it in a way where they hope you won’t object out of fear of looking like ‘the bad guy’.
Discussion ¬