Excuse me as I go on a bit of a rant for a moment about some hypocritical people.(No actual names, usernames, etc mentioned)
Disclaimer: Mentions of Sexual Assault, Harassment, Mutilation, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Beastilaity(sex with animals)and other such mature topics below.
So, I’m mainly ranting about this cause I don’t wish to get into an actual argument with the people in question, cause I am well aware that isn’t going to do me any good. But, I would like to post this somewhere to get it off my chest.
Allow me to explain the situation; I was looking at fanart for Your Boyfriend which is a visual novel game about the player going on a date with their stalker, though the player is not aware the stalker is a stalker(warning: this game is for people 18+, so don’t go watching or playing it if you are underage). And, as you can likely imagine, people draw some pretty dubious/noncon stuff about it, things like getting molested in your sleep, getting your limps cut off, etc.
Well, I saw one of these fanart creators make a post about someone calling people who like Your Boyfriend, or have a crush on the stalker; Peter, and draw fanart of him doing these things, a bunch of mean things. Essentially, calling people who like the game crazy rapist/stalker supporters. Of course this offended the fanart creator, so they made a post talking about how; Nobody is supporting what Peter’s doing by drawing fanart of it, or liking the game, they are just embracing the point of the game. Others said that they used this game as a copping mechanism as they, themselves, were victims of stalking, assault, etc. And, others made points about how the character is fictional, so no one is actually getting hurt by Peter’s actions.
And, I completely agree and support all of these statements. Your Boyfriend is a game rated R for adults that has heavy warnings about it’s topics, and while I don’t support it’s creator. The fans aren’t hurting or prompting anything by drawing fanart or writing fanfiction about it that are intended to be read by well adjusted adults who can tell reality from fiction.
However, I soon after saw another post by the same fanart creator telling people to block and report another fanart creator for making fanart that sexualized mutilating fictional animals and sexualizing fictional minors; the key term here being FICTIONAL. The comments of this post were filled with people being disgusted with the opposing creator, calling them mentally disturbed, harmful to others, etc. Very similar statements to the same one that was condemning the Your Boyfriend community.
This hypocritical behavior is just appalling, and I see it very often.
For starters; a lot of fanart in the Your Boyfriend community is of Peter in high school trying to have sex with the player, and the like, so this claim that ‘sexualizing minors even if their fictional isn’t okay’ just proves how uncaring about the real life sexualization of minors these people are. Because news flash; teenagers are minors.
Secondly; This Your Boyfriend fanart creator drew pictures of Peter cutting people up, but apparently fictional animals are a no-no? And, it’s not like one picture was romanticizing it and the other wasn’t, both peoples pictures portrayed the act of cutting something up, whether animal or human, as some level of attractive. And, last time I checked, people actually eat animals.
Thirdly; As a victim of pedophilia, I often cope by reading or looking up fanart of fictional minors being in my past position. Which is what one of the commentors on the Your Boyfriend fanart creators first post also said about their assault. So, why is it that this commentor can cope by reading or seeing fictional version of their assault, but pedophilia victims can’t?
Now, I want to end this rant by making a few things very clear. I have no problems with ANY topic being discussed or visualized as long as the stories or drawings do not depict real people or situations(that aren’t the creators own). AND, as long as proper disclaimers and ratings are provided. I believe any healthy adult should be able to differentiate between reality and fiction, and should be capable of deciding what they do and don’t enjoy/interact with.
My problem is when people try to decide what is and isn’t appropriate in a FICTIONAL setting. It’s the equivalent of people debating whether it is or isn’t okay to eat animals, or whether it is or isn’t okay to get an abortion. You can’t say it’s only okay to eat animals or to get an abortion if they meet certain requirements; That eating one animal is okay, but the other deserves to live. This person can get an abortion, because they got pregnant this way, but the other person can’t cause they got pregnant this way. Either fictional situations are okay because they’re fictional, or they aren’t because they’re still about a bad thing. Either adults are smart enough to differentiate between reality and fiction or they’re not. I’m done with this double standard that only lets people cope through fanart or fanfiction if their trauma was a certain level of 'bad’, and I’m done with this double standard that fictional universes are for everyone of any age until you start bringing adult themes into it, because then 'this is FICTION what if CHILDREN see it?(even if the material isn’t for children)’.
DRAW WHAT YOU WANT. WRITE WHAT YOU WANT. USE DISCLAIMERS IF NECESSARY. RATE IT PROPERLY. AND IF YOU DON’T LIKE SOMEONES STUFF THEN MIND YOUR OWN DAMN BUSINESS, YOU’RE NOT GOD, YOU’RE NOT THE POLICE; AND I ASSURE YOU, YOU ARE NOT THE CHILDHOOD SAVING HERO YOU WISH YOU WERE.
P.S. While I’m open to discussion on the topics mentioned, if the discussion is polite and not simply insulting. If I see one more person on a post like this, bringing morality into this then I better not see a SINGLE bad thing on your tumblr or any other site you use, no; adultery(cheating), cheating on test, verbal abuse, child neglect, age gaps of more than two years, power imbalances(including between boss and employee/professor and college student/etc), drunk sex, drug induced sex, lying, manipulation, teenagers in sexual situations(sex/making out/undressing to any extent/etc), people drinking/smoking/doing drugs underage, not requesting a proper ‘yes’ before kissing/undressing/having sex with someone, littering, stealing, impersonating an officer, plagiarizing(the characters, but hopefully not you either), skipping school, physical violence(slapping/fist fights/gun fights/etc), murder, carrying a gun without a license. I could go on, but I won’t. I don’t care about the context, if you’re going to make this about morality then you better only ever read, write and/or consume media with the best, most moral message in existence otherwise you’re no better then anyone else teaching ‘bad’ morals; what if CHILDREN saw what you were doing/watching/reading?