oooooh we're doing the fanfic purity pearl-clutching again today, are we? seems really 2009 but if someone wants to throw down about this, I'll throw down about this *cracks knuckles*

Here's the fucking tea, babes.

You don't have to make excuses for a single damn thing you write, as long as you tag your shit clearly and comprehensively so people can give informed consent about whether or not to engage with it.

That's what the argument all comes down to, right? Consent.

Fictional characters cannot give OR withold consent. THEY ARE FICTIONAL.

YOU, the reader, the actual living person who exists, are the one whose consent matters here.

The whole purity argument comes down, again and again, to readers disguising or denying THEIR OWN CONSENT AND AGENCY in order to promote their agenda.

"Writing sex between underage characters is wrong because they can't consent" THEY'RE FICTIONAL. THEY CAN'T CONSENT *BECAUSE THEY'RE FICTIONAL*. Even if they are adults, they cannot consent *because they don't exist*. A teaspoon has more ability to consent -- at least it exists!

The argument isn't about defending the rights of fictional characters. It's about "this sort of story shouldn't be allowed."

And THAT argument, when you take off all the camouflage, is "I don't consent to this, AND I am not confident in my personal agency"

A person who is confident in their agency sees a clearly and comprehensively tagged fanfic, says "That doesn't seem like my thing" and keeps scrolling.

In the same situation, a person who is not confident in their personal agency goes through this thought process:

1. I don't consent to read this
2. I don't feel like I'm allowed to withhold my consent.
3. I feel unsafe.
4. I need to be protected.
5. I can't make it about my feelings, because I'm not allowed to.
6. [displacement] Others need to be protected.
7. This shouldn't be allowed.

It is exactly the same thing as someone who is uncomfortable with rollercoasters walking past a theme park and going "HOW DARE THIS APPEAR IN FRONT OF ME, THIS IS SO DANGEROUS"

just keep walking. You don't have to go in the theme park. You don't have to read the fic.

Guess what! People are into weird stuff! In real life, when we are interacting with ACTUAL PEOPLE WHO EXIST, consent is super important, and so are boundaries, and empathy, and awareness of and sensitivity to potential or actual power differentials.

In fiction? You can do any fucking gross stuff you want, and some people will like how it makes them feel.

I personally can't stand horror. Can't do it. Not for me. People clutch their pearls about horror writers for writing about gore and violence and murder and torture.

But am I going to tell Jordan Peele or Clive Barker or Stephen King that they shouldn't make terrifying, uncomfortable art just because *I* can't cope with it? hell fucking no. Some people like feeling those things

The pearl-clutchers also like to argue "Well, but but but, it will normalize rape and pedophilia, it will make people think it's ok"

Do horror movies make people think it is ok to be a serial-murderer with a chainsaw for a hand, or a weird clown who lives in the sewer??? OBVS NO

Readers who are clutching your pearls! Your consent DOES matter! You are allowed to not like a piece of fiction! You don't have to make it about some Grand Moral Justice Of The Universe! You can just go "ew no" and walk away!

No one is going to become a murderous sewer-clown just from reading some smutty "problematic" fanfic, and if they DO, then they're an outlier and also probably have MUCH BIGGER PROBLEMS ALREADY.

Worry about your own shit, and leave everybody else to worry about theirs!

In conclusion:

* Read the tags.
* Don't go on the roller coaster if you don't like roller coasters
* Don't weep about how people on the roller coaster are moral degenerates or proto-sewerclowns
* Practice saying "Your kink is not my kink and that's ok" (YKINMKATOK)
* Chill.

For lack of having a soundcloud, I'll suggest that you go listen to @serpentcast, my Hugo Award nominated podcast about works of deep literary merit (including fanfic!), which involves Actual In-Depth, Nuanced Discussion and not this stale garbage discourse

A very apt addition: https://twitter.com/jennlyonsauthor/status/1198687473871794177

Further additions: https://twitter.com/_alexrowland/status/1198695009815613446

i mean that's basically the long and short of it, isn't it https://twitter.com/marshallmaresca/status/1198704341546405889

can't believe i wrote this whole thread and spent the whole day watching it when I could have just posted this one song from 1967 and called it a fucking day. Relevant then and relevant right fuckin now: Tom Lehrer's "Smut", everybody!